Association between FokI Polymorphism in Vitamin D Receptor Gene and Susceptibility to Spinal Tuberculosis in Chinese Han Population
Received 28 September 2009; accepted 12 November 2009. published online 15 March 2010.
Background and Aims
Studies have shown that the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms may be associated with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and play important roles in the regulation of calcium in a variety of tissues including bone. To our knowledge, however, whether FokI polymorphism in VDR gene is associated with susceptibility to spinal TB is still unknown. We undertook this study to investigate the association between FokI polymorphism in VDR gene and susceptibility to spinal TB in Chinese Han population.
Methods
This study included 110 patients with spinal TB and 102 volunteers as controls. FokI polymorphism in VDR gene was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in the spinal TB group and the control group. The frequencies of VDR-FokI genotypes in the two groups were compared using χ2 test.
Results
There was a significant difference between groups in regard to the frequencies of the VDR-FokI genotypes (p <0.05). In the spinal TB group, the frequency of the ff genotype was 46.36%, which was significantly higher than the corresponding value for the control group (28.43%). Furthermore, the odds ratio (OR) was 2.176 (p <0.05), and the 95% confidence interval (CI) ranged from 1.236–3.832.
Conclusions
FokI polymorphism in VDR gene may be associated with the susceptibility to spinal TB in Chinese Han population. Furthermore, the ff genotype may be the susceptible genotype of spinal TB.
Department of Spine Surgery, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, ChangSha, China
Address reprint requests to: Hong-Qi Zhang, MD, Department of Spine Surgery, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Xiangya Road 87, ChangSha 410008, China; Phone: +86 0731-84327010
ABSTRACT