Endothelial apoptosis genes as candidates for the study of their associations with lymphedema

Currently, more than 150 million people in the world are suffering from lymphedema. This disease is characterized by high-protein edema of various parts of the body, caused by impaired lymphatic drainage. The molecular genetic basis of the pathogenesis of lymphedema is currently not fully understood. Disorders of endothelial apoptosis are among the factors involved in the development of lymphedema. In this paper, using the ToppGene program, we performed a search among genes involved in endothelial apoptosis to find perspective candidates for genotyping aimed on revealing of associations with lymphedema. KDR, TEK, MAP3K5, ABL1, PLCG1, CCL2, FASLG, DAB2IP, ICAM1 and SERPINE1 were identified as the highest priority genes.