ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Several genes encoding transcription factors are known to be the primary cause of congenital heart disease. NKX2-5 and GATA4 were the first congenital heart disease-causing genes identified by linkage analysis. This study designed to study the association of five single-nucleotide variants of NKX2-5, GATA4, and TBX5 genes with sporadic nonsyndromic cases of a congenital cardiac septal defect in Egyptian children. METHODS:Venous blood samples from 150 congenital heart disease children (including a ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect, tetralogy of Fallot, and patent ductus arteriosus) and 90 apparently healthy of matched age and sex were studied by polymerase chain reaction followed by direct sequencing in order to study two single-nucleotide variants of NKX2-5 (rs2277923, rs28936670), two single-nucleotide variants of GATA4 (rs368418329, rs56166237) and one single-nucleotide variant TBX5 (rs6489957). The distribution of genotype and allele frequency in the congenital heart diseases (CHD) group and control group were analyzed. RESULTS:We found different genotype frequencies of the two variants of NKX2-5, as CT genotype of rs2277923 was present in 58% and 36% in cases and control respectively, and TT genotype present in 6% of the cases. Also regarding missense variant rs28936670, heterozygous AG presented in 82% of the cases. Also, we observed a five prime UTR variant rs368418329, GT (42% of the cases) and GG (46% of the cases) genotypes showed the most frequent presentation in cases. While regarding a synonymous variant rs56166237, GT and GG were the most presented in cases (41.4%, 56% respectively) in contrast to control group (20%, 1.7% respectively). Also, a synonymous variant in TBX5, the distribution of genotype frequency was significantly different between the CHD group and control group. CT genotype of TBX5 -rs6489957 was found in 12 ASD, 24 VSD, six PDA, three aortic coarctation and nine fallot that represent 42% of the cases. CONCLUSIONS:Significantly higher frequency of different allelle of five variants was observed in cases when compared to the control group, with significant risky effect for the development of septal defect. In addition to two polymorphisms of NKX2-5 (rs2277923, rs28936670) variant in the cardiac septal defect, two variants in GATA4 (rs368418329, rs56166237) and one variant in TBX5 (rs6489957) seem to have a role in the pathogenesis of congenital heart disease.
