title: Red hair,MC1Rvariants, and risk for Parkinson's disease - a meta-analysis.
abstract: Several studies have been conducted with mixed results since our initial report of increased Parkinson's disease risk in individuals with red hair and/or red hair-associated p.R151C variant of theMC1Rgene, both of which confer high melanoma risk. We performed a meta-analysis of six publications on red hair,MC1R, and Parkinson's disease. We found that red hair (pooled odds ratios = 1.68, 95% confidence intervals: 1.07, 2.64) and p.R151C (pooled odds ratios = 1.10, 95% confidence intervals: 1.00, 1.21), but not p.R160W, were associated with greater risk for Parkinson's disease. Our results support potential roles of pigmentation and its key regulatorMC1Rin the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease.
authors.affiliation: Mass General Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease Department of Neurology Harvard Medical School Massachusetts General Hospital Boston 02129 Massachusetts; Shanghai 10th Hospital Tongji University School of Medicine Shanghai China.
authors.forename: Xiqun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Mass General Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease Department of Neurology Harvard Medical School Massachusetts General Hospital Boston 02129 Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Mass General Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease Department of Neurology Harvard Medical School Massachusetts General Hospital Boston 02129 Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Schwarzschild
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Sciences The Pennsylvania State University University Park 16802 Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao