Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Genotype and Acute Pancreatitis in Turkey

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of acute and chronic pancreatitis. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) is the key enzyme which activates RAS. The ACE intron 16 insertion/ deletion (I/D) polymorphism is associated with ACE activity and is considered to be a risk factor for several inflammatory processes. We investigated this polymorphism in 68 patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) and 157 healthy Turkish control subjects. Patients were evaluated with ultrasonography, abdominal tomography and laboratory markers and grouped by status for diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HT), and both these diseases and by etiology. Genotyping of the I/D polymorphism was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The DD genotype was more prevalent in healthy controls, however, genotype II was significantly more frequent in AP patients (p <0.05). In severe AP patients, the genotype II frequency was significantly higher than in controls (p <0.05). Acute pancreatitis patients with both DM and HT had lower frequencies of genotype DD and of the D allele, and higher frequencies of genotype II and of the I allele than patients with either DM or HT (p <0.05).