Background and objectives: The importance of genetic susceptibility in COPD has not been determined. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between susceptibility to COPD and polymorphisms in the Clara cell 16 kDa secretory protein (CC16), 8-hydroxy-guanine glycosylase (OGG1) and glutamatecysteine ligase catalytic subunit (GCLC) genes in a southern Chinese population of Han nationality.
Methods: A case-control study was performed on 166 paired subjects with or without COPD, who were randomly selected from a pool of 310 paired subjects. These subjects were selected from epidemiological survey participants, with matched-pairs being strictly localized in the Guangzhou urban and Shaoguan rural areas. The following polymorphisms were genotyped by PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism analysis: 38 A/G in exon 1 of the CC16 gene, 1245C/G in exon 7 of the OGG1 gene and -129C/T in the GCLC gene. Genotype frequencies and allelic frequencies were analysed.
Results: There were no significant differences in the distribution of genotype frequencies for CC16 38 A/G, OGG1 1245C/G or GCLC -129C/T between the COPD and non-COPD subjects. The distribution of the allelic frequencies of these three genes also showed no significant difference between the two groups.
Conclusions: The genetic polymorphisms in CC16 38 A/G, OGG1 1245C/G and GCLC -129C/T are not associated with susceptibility to COPD in a southern Chinese population of Han nationality.