Association analysis between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and polymorphisms in circadian genes

BACKGROUND: Circadian genes have been suggested to play an important role in lung pathology. However, it remains unknown whether polymorphisms of these genes are associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Here, we aimed to investigate the association of circadian genes polymorphisms with COPD in a case-control study of 477 COPD patient and 323 control Han Chinese persons. METHODS: Genotyping assays were carried out for nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from five circadian genes (PER3, CLOCK, RORB, BMAL1 and CRY2) that were previously identified in lung pathology. Age, sex, BMI and smoking status and comorbidities were recorded for all subjects. RESULTS: No significant association was found in all SNP sites in overall subjects and no significant difference was found in age, sex, smoking status stratification analysis. DISCUSSION: The findings of this investigation indicated the effect of circadian genes polymorphisms on COPD susceptibility may only be small and possibly dependent on the subject factors, such as age and sex.