Background: Heart failure (HF) is a serious public health concern resulting in death. An individual predisposition to HF is determined by relationship between genetic and environmental variables. The macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a significant mediator that involved in a variety of inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases. To reveal contribution of MIF rs755622 G173C gene variants in the promoter region towards HF pathogenesis and investigate association between recognized genotype and clinical characteristics.

Patients and methods: We recruited 90 patients with HF, 63 with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and 27 with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), and 60 age- and sex- matched controls. MIF rs755622 (G>C) single-nucleotide polymorphism was genotyped by PCR-RFLP method.

Results: The GG genotype of MIF rs755622 gene polymorphism was more frequent in HF patients than in controls which increased the risk of HF by about 4.25 times (p<0.05). The distribution of the GG, GC and CC genotypes of MIF were 42%, 21% and 0.0% among HFrEF, and 33.3%, 55.6% and 11.1% among HFpEF respectively. Higher frequency of MIF rs755622 G allele among HFrEF (100%) compared to HFpEF (88.9%) (p = 0.007). MIF-GG genotype variant had significantly lower LVEF. In multivariate analysis, MIF-GG genotype was independent risk predictor among HF (OR 4.6).

Conclusion: MIF rs755622 (GG) could be considered as a probable genotypic risk factor for HF, especially in those with HFrEF which increases the possibility that MIF contribute to HF progression. MIF genotype assay may serve as early predictor and help to recognize those at great risk of developing HF.