Association of IFNG gene polymorphism with asthma in the Indian population.
Epidemiologic studies in India show that the prevalence of asthma is increasing, but no genetic studies have been reported on the Indian population thus far. We selected the IFNG locus on 12q21 as a candidate gene for asthma on the basis of its role in pathophysiology and positive linkage demonstrated in other populations. The aim of this study was to investigate association of a CA-repeat marker in this gene with asthma and total serum IgE levels in the North Indian population. The repeat region was PCR-amplified from patients and control subjects and analyzed through use of GeneScan. The distributions of allele sizes were found to be significantly different between patients and control subjects (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, P < 10(-6)). Alleles 10 and 11 were found to be overrepresented in individuals with asthma, whereas alleles 13 and 15 were less likely in asthmatic individuals. We found that the CA-repeat polymorphism in the IFNG gene was significantly associated with total serum IgE levels (ANOVA, P < 10(-4) for control subjects and P =.0036 for patients). Furthermore, a previously reported promoter polymorphism at the -333 base pair position was not detected in our population. This is the first report on the association of a candidate gene with asthma from the Indian subcontinent.
The Center for Biochemical Technology, Mall Road, Delhi.
Rana
R
Nagarkatti
Chandrika
C
B Rao
Jai Prakash
JP
Rishi
Rajesh
R
Chetiwal
Vipul
V
Shandilya
Vannankandi
V
Vijayan
Raj
R
Kumar
Harish K
HK
Pemde
Surendra K
SK
Sharma
Sweety
S
Sharma
Anand B
AB
Singh
Sharad V
SV
Gangal
Balaram
B
Ghosh
D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005787:Gene Frequency; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000097:blood; D007194:India; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
D007073:Immunoglobulin E; D007371:Interferon-gamma