Background and Purpose--Endothelial dysfunction has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cerebral small-vessel disease (SVD). Endothelin (ET), released by the endothelium, plays a crucial role in vasoconstriction in the cerebral circulation and could contribute to the pathogenesis of cerebral SVD. Circulating ET levels may not reflect vascular production of endothelin-1 (ET-1), most of which is abluminal. Studying genetic associations, particularly of functional polymorphisms that alter activity of the ET system, is an attractive method of determining whether ET plays a role in SVD pathogenesis. We determined whether genetic variants in components of the ET system are a risk factor for cerebral SVD.

Methods--Three hundred SVD patients and 600 community controls were genotyped. Polymorphisms in the ET-1 gene (K198N), the ET receptor type A (ET_A), (-231G>A and +1222C>T), and the ET type B (ET_B) receptor (G57S and L277L) were genotyped. Polymorphisms were studied both individually and as haplotypes. With brain imaging, cases were subtyped into those with lacunar infarct without leukoaraiosis and those with leukoaraiosis.

Results--No significant differences were observed between SVD cases and controls for any individual single-nucleotide polymorphism or the ET_A haplotype. There were no differences between cases with isolated lacunar infarct or with lacunar infarct and leukoaraiosis.

Conclusions--This study, in a well-phenotyped population, does not support a role for genetic variation in the ET system as a risk factor for cerebral SVD.