Insulin-like growth factor-II gene polymorphism is associated with primary open angle glaucoma.

Hypoxia and ischemia play important roles in the onset and progression of glaucoma. Insulin-like growth factors (IGF) are important neurotrophic agents that respond to hypoxia-ischemia. In this study, we enrolled 60 primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients and 104 healthy volunteers from the China Medical College Hospital. Among the polymorphism of IGFs gene, exon 9 Apa I C/T gene polymorphism is the most frequently seen. The polymorphism was observed following polymerase chain reaction based restriction analysis used to to resolve the relationship between IGF-II exon 9 Apa I C/T gene polymorphism and POAG. The distribution of the IGF-II exon 9 gene polymorphism showed statistical differences in the distribution of genotype frequencies between POAG patients and normal controls (P=0.010). The odds ratio of C/C homozygote was 0.266 (95% confidence interval=0.636 approximately 0.111). IGF-II is an important neurotrophic agent and regulates the suffering of POAG. C/C homozygote of IGF-II exon 9 Apa I C/T gene polymorphism is a useful marker of POAG in Chinese. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.