Association between osteoprotegerin genetic variants and bone mineral density in Chinese women.

Osteoprotegerin gene (OPG) is one of the most important candidate genes for osteoporosis. The aim of this study was to assess the association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of OPG gene and bone mineral density (BMD). A total of 706 Chinese postmenopausal women were enrolled in this study. OPG gene variants were genotyped through created restriction site-polymerase chain reaction (CRS-PCR) and verified using DNA sequencing methods. The lumbar spine (L2-4), total hip and femoral neck were evaluated for BMD. Two genetic variants (g.18910G>A and g.27406C>T) were detected in this study. Our data indicated that the significant differences of spine BMD, neck hip BMD and total hip BMD were detected among different g.27406C>T genotype, subjects with the genotype CC were significantly higher than those of genotype CT and TT. However, the g.18910G>A polymorphism was not significantly associated with spine BMD, neck hip BMD and total hip BMD in the studied subjects. Results from this study indicated that OPG gene variants were associated with BMD in Chinese postmenopausal women. These findings will be useful to analyze the role of OPG gene in osteoporosis in the further studies.