Genetic studies of ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament of the spine

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament of the spine(OPLL)is the leading cause of myelopathy in Japan. In earlier studies, we provided genetic linkage and allelic association evidence of distinct differences in the human collagen α2(XI)gene(COL11A2)that might constitute inherited predisposition to OPLL.A strong allelic association with non-OPLL(P=0.0003)was observed with an intron 6 polymorphism(Intron 6(-4A)), where the intron 6(-4A)allele is more frequently observed in non-OPLL subjects than in OPLL patients. In addition, five distinct SNPs, identified in COL11A2, were combined to construct possible haplotypes by use of a maximum likelihood program. Estimated haplotype frequency was compared between OPLL patients and non-OPLL controls and gender-specific association of COL11A2 haplotype with OPLL was observed. The most commonly observed haplotype was significantly increased in male patients(p=0.0003)but not in female patients(p=0.21). OPLL is a complex disease, and several genetic factors other COL11A2 are probably involved in the etiology, so the more extensive candidate gene approach was performed. We selected a total of 88 candidate genes based on two separate investigations. 24 genes differentially regulated during osteoblastic differentiation were selected by cDNA microarray analysis, and subjected to linkage analysis. We also selected 64 candidate genes that are possibly involved in bone metabolism or related conditions. Microsatellite markers, locating close to or within the candidate genes were obtained in the latest online information. With these markers we performed non-parametric linkage study with 126 OPLL sib-pairs to identify genetic loci responsible in OPLL.