Vitamin D Receptor Gene Polymorphism: Association With Bone Mineral Density In Children Of Han Nationality In Chengdu

Objective: To investigate the association between the four single nucleotidepolymorphisms (SNP) of vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene and bone mineraldensity (BMD) of lumbar spine in school-age children of Han nationality inChengdu.Methods: Using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment lengthpolymorphisms (PCR-RFLP), we studied four SNP loci of VDR gene in 185unrelated healthy school-age children. BMD was measured at lumbar spineby quantitative computed tomography (QCT) in 98 of the 185 children. Andwe correlated their BMD with VDR gene polymorphisms.Results: In our study, the distributions of the four SNPs of VDR gene accordwith Hardy-Weinberg law. Layered by gender or not, no significant relationwas observed between VDR gene polymorphisms and BMD, even if adjustedfor age and body mass index (BMI) using analysis of covariance. Except thatcortical BMD of Tt genotype in girls was significantly higher than that inboys, the trabecular and cortical BMD were not significantly differentbetween boys and girls. Correlation analysis showed trabecular BMDcorrelated with cortical BMD. BMI had effect on cortical BMD in girls bymultiple regression analysis.Conclusions: Our results suggest that the distributions of VDR genepolymorphisms differ significantly by race. We didn't observe the association between VDR gene polymorphisms and BMD at lumbar spine in school-age children of Han nationality. BMD at lumbar spine did not differ by gender in school-age children in the study.