title: A vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism in the translation initiation codon: effect on protein activity and relation to bone mineral density in Japanese women.
abstract: The effect of a T-C transition polymorphism at the translation initiation codon of the human vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene on the biological function of the encoded protein was investigated. Of 239 Japanese women volunteers subjected to genotype analysis for this polymorphism, 32 (13%) were genotype MM (the M allele is ATG at the putative translation start site), 75 (31%) were genotype mm (the m allele is ACG at the putative translation start site), and 132 (55%) were genotype Mm. The bone mineral density (BMD) in the lumbar spine (L2-L4) was determined for 110 healthy premenopausal women from the volunteers and was shown to be 12.0% greater (p < 0.05) for mm homozygotes than for MM homozygotes. Synthesis of the proteins by the M and m alleles from the cloned cDNAs in vitro and in transfected COS-7 cells revealed them to have a size of 50 and 49.5 kD, respectively, as determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. This size difference is consistent with initiation of translation of the M allele-encoded protein from an ATG codon located at nucleotides +10 to +12 in the conventional open reading frame. The extent of vitamin D-dependent transcriptional activation of a reporter construct under the control of a vitamin D response element in transfected HeLa cells was approximately 1.7-fold greater for the m type VDR than for the M type protein. These results suggest that the polymorphism at the translation start site of the VDR gene may modulate BMD in premenopausal Japanese women.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Nutrition, School of Medicine, Tokushima University, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Arai
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miyamoto
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Taketani
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iemori
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Morita
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tonai
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishisho
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Takeda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015519:Bone Density / Q000235:genetics*; D019556:COS Cells; D018387:Codon, Initiator / Q000235:genetics; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D005091:Exons; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D018167:Receptors, Calcitriol / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D018387:Codon, Initiator; D018167:Receptors, Calcitriol; D004247:DNA