Partners in inflammation
Friday, March 11, 2011 - 10:22
in Health & Medicine
Individuals with increased levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the blood are at increased risk for various diseases linked to inflammation, such as colorectal cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Now, a research team in Japan including Yukinori Okada and colleagues at the RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine in Yokohama, reports that single-nucleotide changes in three genes can affect the blood levels of CRP in Japanese individuals. Two of these genes, CRP and HNF1A, had already been found to affect Caucasians, but it was unclear if those same genes would also play a role in Japanese people.