Some men are genetically predisposed to be 50 per cent more likely to get heart disease.

This is the finding of researchers from the University of Ballarat (Australia) and University of Leicester, (UK) that could improve understanding and treatment of heart disease, at least in men. First, they classified their 3, 000subjects into two major groups, haplogroup I and haplogroup R1b1b2, since 90 per cent of British Y chromosomes belong to either group.

The risk of coronary artery disease, the narrowing of blood vessels delivering blood to the heart, among men who carry a Y chromosome from haplogroup I is 50 per cent higher than other men, and the risk is independent of traditional risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking.

The new research provides insight into the genetic variants and potential new approaches to understanding heritable coronary artery disease in men compared to women.

The findings also reveal that the human Y chromosome, which is passed from father to son, is associated with risk of coronary artery disease in men of European ancestry, possibly through interactions of immunity and inflammation.

The research is a major breakthrough in the understanding of heart disease in men. Cardiovascular disease remains the biggest cause of death in Australia, with 6.4% of Australian aged 15 and above suffering from some kind of heart ailment according to figures from the Australia Bureau of Statistics.

"Excitingly Australia played a major role in the discovery of how the Y chromosome contributes to sex determination, now it plays a major role in the discovery of the way this small human chromosome contributes to a major killer disease in human," Professor Fadi Charchar, Associate Dean of Research at UB's School of Health Sciences, said.

The research took four years to complete and was primarily funded by the British Heart Foundation and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, National Institute for Health Research, LEW Cart Charitable Fund, the European Union, and the Wellcome Trust.

Their research was published in the 9 February of The Lancet, the prestigious international medical journal.

Source: University of Ballarat