Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Public Health 2251-6085 46 10 2017 10 08 1379 1385 Mohammad Mehdi HEIDARI Dept. of Biology, Faculty of Science, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran Mahboobe DERAKHSHANI Dept. of Biology, Faculty of Science, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran Fatemeh SEDIGHI Dept. of Biology, Faculty of Science, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran Seyed Khalil FORUZAN-NIA Dept. of Cardiac Surgery, Afshar Hospital, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran 2017 10 07 2017 10 07 Background: Atherosclerosis is a disease that affects large and medium size arteries in the body that underlies coronary heart disease. Several nucleotide changes in mitochondrial tRNA genes have been reported in various diseases. The purpose of the study was to identify hotspot mitochondrial tRNA mutations in atherosclerotic patients. Methods: In this case-control study, the variations of ten mitochondrial tRNA genes (about 50%) were investigated in 70 patients from October 2013 and June 2015 suffered from atherosclerosis. The related mitochondrial area was amplified using PCR methid. The mutation analysis was performed by Single Strand Conformational Polymorphism (SSCP) and Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). All the positive samples were sequenced. Results: We found one novel heteroplasmic mutation (m.5725T>G) and three reported single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously in other diseases including m.5568A>G, m.5711A>G and m.12308A>G. Conclusion: These tRNA mutations can alter their steady state level and affect the structure of tRNA. The role of mitochondrial tRNA mutations in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis could potentially be important for the understanding of mitochondrial dysfunction in coronary atherosclerotic plaque formation.     https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/view/11249 https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/download/11249/5760