Systematic assessment of the tagging polymorphisms of the COL1A1 gene for high myopia

Reduced scleral collagen accumulation has been found in the development of myopia. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the type I collagen alpha-1 gene (COL1A1) may cause different susceptibilities to myopia. We conducted a case-control study to systematically examine COL1A1 as a candidate gene for high myopia. A case was defined as spherical refraction or=-1.5 D. The study comprised 471 cases and 623 controls, and ten tagging SNPs were genotyped. None of the SNPs reached the significant level of 0.05. Subset analysis on cases with a strong family history did not demonstrate significant results. We could not find an interaction between gene and near work. Exploratory analyses by changing the cutoff values to re-define cases and controls did not improve the results. Haplotype analysis did not yield significant association with myopia. This study failed to demonstrate COL1A1 as a significant risk factor for high myopia.