Heart attacks kill more than 100,000 people annually in the UK and cost the NHS more than £3billion every year.
Scientists know that heredity plays an important role in causing heart attacks. However the exact genetic mechanisms that transmit the risk of heart attacks from generation to generation still elude them.
A research project at the University of Leicester employs state-of-the-art molecular technology to map genetic patterns in healthy young men with a strong family history of heart attacks.
Blood samples were collected from two groups of healthy young men - those with and without a history of heart attacks in the family. Proteins were then added to the blood samples to simulate the changes that occur within blood vessels at the time of a heart attack.
This activated cells known as monocytes, which have a central role in the build up of cholesterol and subsequent narrowing of blood vessels which lead on to heart attacks. The group tested whether such activation would reveal genetically inherited mechanisms in monocytes that increase the risk of heart attacks.
The cell nucleus is the control centre containing genes which instruct protein building units within cells. Genetic information is released from the nucleus in packages called messenger RNA (mRNA). Such messengers were intercepted within monocytes and the messages which regulate monocyte function were 'read'. This allowed the team to focus on 'spelling errors' in the genes which may contribute to heart attacks.