title: No association between apolipoprotein E or N-acetyltransferase 2 gene polymorphisms and age-related hearing loss.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Age-related hearing loss has a genetic component, but there have been limited genetic studies in this field. Both N-acetyltransferase 2 and apolipoprotein E genes have previously been associated. However, these studies have either used small sample sizes, examined a limited number of polymorphisms, or have produced conflicting results. Here we use a haplotype tagging approach to determine association with age-related hearing loss and investigate epistasis between these two genes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Candidate gene association study of a continuous phenotype.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated haplotype tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms in the N-acetyltransferase 2 gene and the presence/absence of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele for association with age-related hearing loss in a cohort of 265 Caucasian elderly volunteers from Greater Manchester, United Kingdom. Hearing phenotypes were generated using principal component analysis of the hearing threshold levels for the better ear (severity, slope, and concavity). Genotype data for the N-acetyltransferase 2 gene was obtained from existing genome-wide association study data from the Illumina 610-Quadv1 chip. Apolipoprotein E genotyping was performed using Sequenom technology. Linear regression analysis was performed using Plink and Stata software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant associations (P value, > 0.05) were observed between the N-acetyltransferase 2 or apolipoprotein E gene polymorphisms and any hearing factor. No significant association was observed for epistasis analysis of apolipoprotein E ε4 and the N-acetyltransferase 2 single nucleotide polymorphism rs1799930 (NAT2*6A).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found no evidence to support that either N-acetyltransferase 2 or apolipoprotein E gene polymorphisms are associated with age-related hearing loss in a cohort of 265 elderly volunteers.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Salford Royal NHS Hospital, Manchester, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Piers
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dawes
authors.forename: Hazel
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Platt
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horan
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ollier
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Munro
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pendleton
authors.forename: Antony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Payton
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D053327:Apolipoprotein E4 / Q000235:genetics*; D001191:Arylamine N-Acetyltransferase / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D060148:HapMap Project; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D011304:Presbycusis / Q000235:genetics*; D013223:Statistics as Topic
chemical_list: D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D001191:Arylamine N-Acetyltransferase; C478900:NAT2 protein, human
keywords: APOE; Age-related hearing loss; N-acetyltransferase 2; presbyacusis