title: Mitochondrial genetic background in Ghanaian patients with primary open-angle glaucoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Prevalence rates for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) are significantly higher in Africans than in European or Asians. It has been reported recently that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages of African origin, excluding L2, conferred susceptibility to POAG in Saudi Arabia. This prompted us to test the role of mtDNA haplogroups in the incidence of POAG in the Ghanaian population who has a high frequency of L2 lineages.
  
  
  METHODS
  DNA was extracted from two independent cohorts of clinically diagnosed POAG patients (n=373) and healthy controls (n=451). All patients and controls were from Accra and Tema (the southern region of Ghana). The hypervariable region-I (HVS-I) and coding regions comprising mtDNA haplogroup diagnostic polymorphisms were polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified and sequenced in all patients and controls and the haplotypes obtained were assorted into haplogroups and their frequencies compared between cohorts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No statistically significant differences were found in mtDNA haplogroup frequencies between POAG patients and matched controls in this cohort for the various mtDNA haplogroups tested.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this Ghanaian cohort, mtDNA haplogroups do not seem to confer susceptibility to POAG.
authors.affiliation: Ophthalmic Genetics Laboratory, Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. abuamero@gmail.com
authors.forename: Khaled K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Abu-Amero
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hauser
authors.forename: Gamal
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mohamed
authors.forename: Yutao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.forename: Ana M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akafo
authors.forename: R Rand
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Allingham
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D044383:Black People; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005869:Ghana / Q000453:epidemiology; D005902:Glaucoma, Open-Angle / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics*; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D044465:White People
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial