Common variants in the COL2A1 gene are associated with lattice degeneration of the retina in a Japanese population

PURPOSE: Lattice degeneration of the retina is a vitreoretinal disorder characterized by a visible fundus lesion that predisposes the patient to retinal detachment. It has been suggested that collagen type II alpha 1 (COL2A1) gene variants may contribute to the development of disorders associated with retinal detachment. Here we investigated whether COL2A1 gene variants were associated with the risk of lattice degeneration of the retina. METHODS: We recruited 634 Japanese patients with lattice degeneration of the retina and 1694 Japanese healthy controls. We genotyped 13 tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in COL2A1. We also performed imputation analysis to evaluate the potential association of un-genotyped COL2A1 SNPs, involving the imputation of 65 SNPs. RESULTS: Two intronic SNPs—rs1793954 and rs1635533—were significantly associated with lattice degeneration of the retina. The SNP rs1793954 showed the strongest association, with its C allele carrying an increased disease risk (p = 0.0016, corrected p = 0.021, OR = 1.25). The rs1793954 and rs1635533 SNPs were in strong linkage disequilibrium with each other (r(2) = 0.99), and conditional analysis revealed that rs1793954 could account for the association between rs1635533 and the disease. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggested that COL2A1 gene variants may contribute to the development of lattice degeneration of the retina. Further genetic and functional analyses of COL2A1 variants are needed to clarify the present findings.