Association of bone morphogenetic protein-4 gene polymorphism with periodontitis in a Taiwanese population

Background/purposeBone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP-4) plays an important role during embryonic development of tooth and bone. Studies have found that the BMP-4 polymorphism rs17563 (T>C) influenced bone loss around implants; however, its impact on periodontitis has never been determined. Association of the polymorphism with periodontitis was evaluated.Materials and methodsTwo hundred Taiwanese were grouped into aggressive periodontitis (AgP), chronic periodontitis (CP), and healthy controls (HC) according to a clinical examination. BMP-4 polymorphism was evaluated by polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism. Distributions of the polymorphism among the groups were compared.ResultsIn the AgP, CP, and HC groups, no significant differences of genotype and allele distributions among homozgotes (CC or TT) and heterozygotes (C/T), between TT and CT+CC, or between the alleles of T and C was found. Using logistic regression, there was no significantly different distribution between each disease group (AgP, CP, or AgP+CP) and HC, although their odds ratios increased in the genotypes of CC, CT, and CC+CT if compared with that of TT, and in the allele of C when compared with the allele T. A higher C allele frequency, but without significance (P = 0.066), was observed in CP than that in HC.ConclusionThe BMP-4 polymorphism may not be correlated with periodontitis. However, there is a trend that patients with chronic periodontitis may have a high C allele frequency in BMP-4 compared to healthy controls.