BACKGROUND Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) is limited by the recurrence of luminal stenosis, which occurs in up to 50% of procedures. It has been shown that patient specific factors, perhaps genes, contribute to this process.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether completion of healing after PTCA is part of an acute self limiting inflammatory process and whether polymorphism at important inflammatory gene loci might determine susceptibility to restenosis after PTCA.

DESIGN DNA samples were collected from 171 patients attending for elective PTCA in Sheffield (S) and Leicester (L), who were scheduled to undergo follow up angiography (at four months (L) or six months (S)) as part of other restenosis studies. At follow up angiography, the patients were separated into restenosers (> 50% luminal narrowing) and non-restenosers (< 50% luminal narrowing). Four DNA polymorphisms within interleukin 1 (IL-1) related loci (IL-1A (−889), IL-1B (−511), IL-1B (+3954), and IL-1RN intron 2 VNTR (variable number tandem repeat)) were genotyped using methods based on polymerase chain reaction. Significance was assessed by χ² analysis of the relevant contingency table, and the magnitude of effect was estimated by calculating odds ratios. The Mantel–Haenszel (MH) test was applied to summarise data across the two populations.

RESULTS Allele 2 at IL-1RN (IL-1RN*2) was significantly over represented in the non-restenoser group (L+S, 34% v 23% in restenosers). Furthermore, IL-1RN*2 homozygosity was increased in the non-restenoser population compared with the restenosers (MH test: p = 0.0196 (L+S); p = 0.031 (L+S, single vessel disease only), and the effect seemed to be restricted to the single vessel disease subpopulation. For other polymorphism within IL-1 related loci no significant associations were found with either restenosis or non-restenosis.

CONCLUSIONS IL-1RN*2 may be associated with protection from restenosis after PTCA for individuals with single vessel disease. As this polymorphism has functional significance, this finding suggests that alteration in an individual's inflammatory predisposition may modulate the blood vessel response to injury.