Genetic polymorphisms in the PDZK1 gene and susceptibility to gout in male Han Chinese: a case-control study.

PDZK1 acts as a scaffolding protein for a large variety of transporter and regulatory proteins, and has been identified in the kidney. The PDZK1 locus has been determined to be associated with the serum urate concentration. However, the evidence supporting this protein's association with gout is equivocal. In the current study, we investigated the association between two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs12129861 and rs1967017) in the PDZK1 gene with gout in a male Chinese Han population. A total of 824 subjects were enrolled in this case-control study (400 gout cases and 424 controls). PDZK1 genotyping was carried out by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and ligase detection reaction (LDR) assays methods. The relationships were evaluated using the pooled odds ratios (ORs) and their 95 % confidence intervals (CI). The results of our case-control study demonstrated that the gout and control groups exhibited significant differences in the distribution of genotypes at rs12129861 (OR = 0.727, P = 0.015) and rs1967017 (OR = 0.705, P = 0.016), suggesting that PDZK1 genetic polymorphisms were associated with increased risks of gout in male Han Chinese. However, there were no differences in the distribution of genotypes at rs12129861 (odds ratio (OR) = 0.744, P > 0.05) and rs1967017 (OR = 0.706, P > 0.05) in patients with gout with kidney stones and without kidney stones.