Estrogen receptor-α thymidine and adenine repeat polymorphism and endothelial fibrinolytic regulation in postmenopausal women

We hypothesized that the capacity of the endothelium to release tissue-type plasminogen activator is blunted in postmenopausal women with long (TA) n repeat alleles (≥18 repeats). Forty-two healthy postmenopausal women were studied: 10 women with short allele genotypes (both alleles, 55%) in the short (452 ± 68 ng/100 mL tissue) compared with the mixed (248 ± 27 ng/100 mL tissue) and long allele (290 ± 53 ng/100 mL tissue) groups. Our results demonstrate that the long (TA) n dinucleotide repeat allele is associated with blunted endothelial tissue-type plasminogen activator release in healthy postmenopausal women.