Gene variants in the NF-KB pathway (NFKB1, NFKBIA, NFKBIZ) and risk for early-onset coronary artery disease

•The nuclear-factor kappa-beta plays an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease (CAD).•Early-onset CAD was strongly associated with male sex and smoking in our population.•The NFKBIZ rs3217713 polymorphism was associated with early-onset CAD in our population.•Two common NFKB1 (-94 delATTG) and NFKBIA (rs8904) polymorphisms were not associated with CAD.•In our population, the NFKBIZ gene variation was an independent risk factor for developing early-onset CAD.