查看文章

Alpha1-antitrypsin (α1AT) is an abundant serine-protease inhibitor in circulation. It has an important role in neutralizing the neutrophil elastase activity. Different pathogenic point mutations like Z^(E342K)-α1AT have been implicated in the development of liver cirrhosis and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), the latter being a cluster of progressive lung diseases including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. M3-α1AT (376Glu > Asp) is another variant of α1AT which so far is largely being considered as normal though increased frequency of the variant has been reported in many human diseases including COPD. We also observed increased frequency of M3-α1AT in COPD cases in Kashmiri population. The frequency of heterozygous (AC) genotype in cases and controls was 58.57% and 27.61% (odds-ratio 6.53 (2.27–15.21); p < 0.0001) respectively, while homozygous CC genotype was found to …