title: Short aggrecan gene repetitive alleles associated with lumbar degenerative disc disease in Turkish patients.
abstract: We  investigated a possible association between aggrecan gene polymorphism  and lumbar degenerative disc disease in Turkish patients. One hundred  20-30-year-old patients with or without low back pain were selected for the  study. Lumbar magnetic resonance imaging was performed on all patients. The  patient group had low back pain clinically and degenerative disc disease  radiographically. The control group included patients with and without low back  pain: all were negative radiographically for degenerative disc disease. Genomic  DNA was extracted from all participants. A PCR assay were used to evaluate  variable number of tandem repeat polymorphism of aggrecan gene alleles  to determine if there was any correlation with degenerative disc disease.  Significant associations were found between short repeated alleles of the aggrecan gene and severe disc degeneration. A significant association was also found  between short repeated alleles of the aggrecan gene and multilevel disc  herniation as well as extrusion and sequestration types of disc herniation. In  Turkish population, short repeated alleles of the aggrecan gene are  associated with increased disc degeneration and disc herniation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. drolcayeser@hotmail.com
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Eser
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Eser
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cosar
authors.forename: M O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Erdogan
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aslan
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yıldız
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Solak
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haktanır
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D053674:Aggrecans / Q000235:genetics*; D000483:Alleles; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D055959:Intervertebral Disc Degeneration / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D014421:Turkey
chemical_list: D053674:Aggrecans