Distribution in allele frequencies of predisposition-to-atopy genotypes in Chinese children

Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in childhood; it is caused by a complex interaction between genetic factors and exposure to environmental allergens and irritants. Previous studies using the candidate gene approach showed that asthma was linked to a number of susceptibility genetic loci in Caucasian subjects. There are, however, only a few studies on asthma predisposition genes in the Chinese population. We studied the distribution of allele frequencies of I50V for the interleukin-4 receptor, two polymorphisms in intron 2 and exon 7 for the high-affinity IgE receptor (FcepsilonRI-beta), R16G and E27Q for the beta(2)-adrenoceptor and R275Q (824G/A) for CC chemokine receptor 3 in Chinese children. Seventy-six patients, with a mean age of 10.6 years, and 70 age- and sex-matched controls, were studied. Significantly more subjects in the asthma group had specific IgE antibodies against environmental allergens (P<0.0001; odds ratio, 9.82). Genotyping of the six genetic markers showed that none of the six polymorphisms was associated with asthma in this cohort. The allele frequencies of I50V, R16G, and E27Q in our population were similar to those published for Asian subjects but not Caucasians. The R275Q substitution was a rare finding in our study and in the published reports. Our results demonstrate ethnic differences in polymorphisms of atopy candidate genes. Additional studies involving larger samples are required to investigate the association between asthma or atopy and the genotypes studied to date in Chinese children. (C) 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.