title: Distributions of p53 codon 72 polymorphism in primary open angle glaucoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Glaucomatous neuropathy is a type of cell death by apoptosis. The p53 gene is one of the regulatory genes of apoptosis. Recently, p53 codon 72 polymorphism has been extensively studied to determine the risk factors responsible for many diseases. In the p53 gene, a single base change from G to C causes the alternation of amino acid residue 72 from arginine to proline. In this study the association between p53 codon 72 polymorphism and primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients was evaluated.
  
  
  METHODS
  58 POAG patients and 59 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. Polymerase chain reaction based analysis was used to resolve the p53 codon 72 polymorphism.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were significant differences in the distribution of the polymorphism between the control subjects and the POAG patients (p = 0.00782) The proline form of p53 gene codon 72 appears to be a significant risk factor in the development of POAG (odds ratio 2.389, 95% confidence interval: 1.14 to 5.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Retinal ganglion cells die during POAG by apoptosis. The tumour suppressor protein, p53, is one of the primary regulators steps of apoptosis, and the results of our study are compatible with this concept.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, China Medical College, Taiwain, ROC.
authors.forename: H-J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: W-C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: F-J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: S-W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Tsai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017209:Apoptosis; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005902:Glaucoma, Open-Angle / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000473:pathology; D012306:Risk; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53