Published Online
on August 17, 2006

A more recent version of this article appeared on September 1, 2006

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Submitted on November 1, 2005
Revised on March 28, 2006
Accepted on May 3, 2006

The Versican Gene and the Risk of Intracranial Aneurysms

Ynte M. Ruigrok MD^*; Gabriël J.E. Rinkel MD, FAHA; and Cisca Wijmenga PhD

From the Department of Neurology, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience (Y.M.R., G.J.E.R.) and the Complex Genetics Section, Department of Biomedical Genetics (C.W.), University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ij.m.ruigrok{at}neuro.azu.nl.

Background and Purpose--The proteoglycan versican is an excellent candidate gene for intracranial aneurysms (IAs) because it plays an important role in extracellular matrix assembly and is localized in a previously implicated locus for IAs on chromosome 5q.

Methods--We analyzed all the common variations using 16-tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and haplotypes in the versican gene using a 2-stage genotyping approach. For stage 1, 16 SNPs were genotyped in 307 cases and 639 controls. For stage 2, the two SNPs yielding the most significant associations (P<0.01) were genotyped in a second independent cohort of 310 cases for confirmation of the associations.

Results--In stage 1, we found several SNPs in strong linkage disequilibrium and haplotypes constituting these SNPs associated with IAs in the Dutch population (strongest SNP association for rs173686 with odds ratio=1.34, 95% CI=1.09 to 1.65, P=0.004). In stage 2, we confirmed association for the 2 SNPs with the most significant associations (strongest SNP association for rs173686 with odds ratio=1.36, 95% CI=1.11 to 1.67, P=0.003).

Conclusion--SNPs in strong linkage disequilibrium and haplotypes constituting these SNPs in the versican gene are associated with IAs suggesting that variation in or near the versican gene plays a role in susceptibility to IAs.

Key words: genetics • intracranial aneurysm • subarachnoid hemorrhage

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