Association between PLA2G6 gene polymorphisms and Parkinson's disease in the Chinese Han population

The PLA2G6 gene encodes a group VIA calcium-independent phospholipase A2, and has been suggested as the causative gene for autosomal recessive dystonia-parkinsonism. We conducted a case-control study using 531 mainland Chinese Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and 561 healthy controls, and genotyped 4 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the PLA2G6 gene: rs4375, rs2267369, rs132985, and rs2284063. Logistic regression analysis revealed no difference in genotype or allele frequencies for any of the SNPs between the sporadic PD group and control group. Similarly, comparison of SNPs in patients with either early-onset (EOPD, ≤50 years) or late-onset (>50 years) PD revealed no statistical differences from controls. We detected no significant association of the 4 SNPs with PD at the genotypic level, after adjustment for age. The rs132985 genotype frequency showed a difference in male patients but not in female patients, but the P value did not survive Bonferroni correction (Pcorr = 0.068). We found that the rs132985 A-rs2284063 C haplotype is marginally associated with increased risk of developing PD (P = 0.048) after 10,000 permutations. These findings suggest that PLA2G6 is not a susceptibility gene for PD in our population. However, a broader examination and a replication of this study in other populations are needed.