TY - JOUR T1 - Association of Gc-globulin variation with susceptibility to COPD and diffuse panbronchiolitis JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 753 LP - 757 VL - 18 IS - 5 AU - T. Ishii AU - N. Keicho AU - S. Teramoto AU - A. Azuma AU - S. Kudoh AU - Y. Fukuchi AU - Y. Ouchi AU - T. Matsuse Y1 - 2001/11/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/18/5/753.abstract N2 - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB) are both characterized by chronic airflow limitation. Although the aetiology of these diseases is under investigation, it is commonly hypothesized that neutrophils have a major role in the disease pathogenesis. The variation of the genes related to chemotaxis of neutrophils may confer a risk for the development of both COPD and DPB. In the present report, the authors investigated the association between genetic variation that codes for the 416th and 420th amino acid of Gc-globulin, reported to be associated with chemotaxis of neutrophils, and susceptibility to COPD and DPB. Blood samples obtained from patients with COPD (n=63), DPB (n=82), and control subjects (n=82) were used for the genotyping assay. The proportion of GC*1F homozygotes was significantly higher in the COPD patients than the control subjects (COPD 36.5% versus control 20.7%), and the odds ratio for GC*1F homozygotes was 2.2 (95% confidence interval 1.1–4.6) for the COPD group. There was no difference on the distribution of the other genotypes (GC*1F-1S heterozygotes, GC*1S homozygotes, GC*2-1F heterozygotes, GC*2-1S heterozygotes and GC*2 homozygotes) or the allele frequencies among these groups. These findings suggest that the GC*1F gene polymorphism of Gc-globulin may be one of the risk factors for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, no association between this polymorphism of Gc-globulin and susceptibility to diffuse panbronchiolitis was found. This study was partly supported by a grant from the Smoking Research Foundation, Health Sciences Research Grants from Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan. ER -