Association of elastin gene polymorphism to age-related macular degeneration and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy

To see if there is an association in Japanese between elastin gene (ELN) polymorphisms and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or its subtypes, typical AMD (tAMD) and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV).

The authors genotyped five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), rs2301995, rs2856728, rs868005, rs884843, and rs13239907, at Kyoto University and Saitama Medical University. A case-control study was performed on 1296 patients with AMD and 478 controls.

A statistically significant association was detected between the rs2301995 SNP and AMD (P = 0.018). Furthermore, subtype analysis revealed a significant association of rs2301995 with tAMD (P = 0.0018), but not with PCV. The genotype distribution of rs2301995 also differed significantly between tAMD and PCV (P = 0.00030). The trend in genotype distribution of rs2301995 was similar between the Kyoto and the Saitama studies. The A allele frequency was higher in tAMD, whereas it was similar in PCV and in controls, which is opposite to that reported in a previous study that the A allele frequency is higher in PCV, whereas it is similar in tAMD and in controls. Haplotype analysis also showed that the ELN polymorphism is significantly associated with tAMD (P = 0.0055), but not with PCV.

ELN is associated with AMD in Japanese. Furthermore, the findings suggest that ELN is a susceptibility gene for tAMD but not for PCV, which is opposite to that reported in a previous study that ELN is the susceptibility gene for PCV but not for tAMD.