Background Atherosclerosis (As) is characterized by chronic inflammation and is a major cause of human mortality.ICAM-1-mediated adhesion of leukocytes and vessel walls plays an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of human intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1),G241R and K469E,are associated with a number of inflammatory diseases including As,peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) and myocardial infarction (MI).SNP induced changes in ICAM-1 function rely not only the expression level but also on the single-molecule binding ability which may be affected by single molecular conformation variations such as protein splicing and folding.Previous studies have shown associations between G241R/K469E polymorphisms and ICAM-1 gene expression.Nevertheless,few studies have been done that focus on the single-molecule forces of the above SNPs and their ligands.