Association between interferon regulatory factor 6 gene polymorphisms and nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate in a chinese population.

Objective : To further confirm the association between two IRF6 single nucleotide polymorphisms and nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate in a Chinese population. Participants : A total of 106 nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate case trios and 129 control trios. Intervention : Two IRF6 single nucleotide polymorphisms, rs2235371 and rs642961, were genotyped for all case and control families. Case-control analysis and family-based linkage analysis were both performed for the two single nucleotide polymorphisms. Results : The genotype and allele frequencies of rs2235371 (odds ratioAG+AA vs. GG, 0.581; 95% confidence interval, 0.345 to 0.976; P = .039) and rs642961 (odds ratioAG+AA vs. GG, 5.389; 95% confidence interval, 2.936 to 9.893; P = 5e-08) were significantly higher in nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate patients compared with controls. There was an obvious dosage effect of allele A at rs642961. The transmission of a major allele (G) of rs2235371 and a minor allele (A) of rs642961 was in disequilibrium (P < .05) in complete case-parent trios. The association between the two single nucleotide polymorphisms and nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate was confirmed by the Family-Based Association Test for rs642961 (P = .008), but there was no significance for rs2235371 (P = 0.057). Haplotype analysis found that rs2235371 G/rs642961 A haplotype increased the risk of nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (P = 2.42e-07); whereas, rs2235371 A/rs642961 G haplotype reduced the risk of nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (P = 4.37e-05). No evidence of linkage disequilibrium was found between the two single nucleotide polymorphisms (D' = 0.303, r(2) = 0.017). Conclusion : Our results confirmed the involvement of the IRF6 variants rs642961 and rs2235371 in the etiology of nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate in a Chinese population.