RESUMO
Osteoporosis is a common disease characterized by low bone mineral density, deterioration in bone microarchitecture, and increased fracture risk and is more prevalent in postmenopausal women. HLA is a complex gene family; previous studies have shown that it plays an important role in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis among Japanese and Greek populations. Prompted by these findings, this study was designed to explore the associations between HLA-A gene polymorphisms and postmenopausal osteoporosis in the Han Chinese population. The polymerase chain reaction-sequence-based typing method was used for DNA genotyping at the HLA-A locus in 70 patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis and 73 healthy controls. We identified 17 HLA-A alleles in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis and 20 HLA-A alleles in control subjects. Furthermore, we found that the frequency of the HLA-A* 02:07 allele was significantly higher in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis than in control subjects (P = 0.023), and the relative risk was 4.065 (95% confidence interval = 1.109-14.893). Our study provides supportive evidence for the contribution of HLA-A gene polymorphisms to the susceptibility to postmenopausal osteoporosis and suggests that HLA-A* 02:07 is likely an important genetic risk factor for postmenopausal osteoporosis in the Han Chinese population.
Assuntos
Povo Asiático/genética , Etnicidade/genética , Predisposição Genética para Doença , Antígenos HLA-A/genética , Polimorfismo Genético , Pós-Menopausa/genética , Alelos , Estudos de Casos e Controles , China , Feminino , Frequência do Gene/genética , Loci Gênicos , Humanos , Desequilíbrio de Ligação/genética , Osteoporose Pós-Menopausa/sangue , Osteoporose Pós-Menopausa/genética , Pós-Menopausa/sangueRESUMO
The human breast cancer-associated gene (BCA3) was first discovered in breast and prostate cancer cells lines. In vivo studies have shown that BCA3 is mainly expressed in breast tumor cells and not in normal breast and prostate tissues. To date, 3 splice variants of BCA3 have been reported: a double-absent variant lacking exon 3 and exon 5 (BCA3-1), an exon 3-absent variant (BCA3-2), and full-length BCA3. In this study, we investigated whether a novel BCA3 splice variant exists that lacks only the exon 5-encoding sequence. BCA3 variant splices were subcloned and sequenced using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The preliminary biological functions of the splices were identified using confocal microscopy and a luciferase assay. The absence of exon 3 and exon 5 influenced the subcellular localization of BCA3 and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB)-dependent gene expression. Exon 3 and exon 5 of BCA3 may function together to provide a nuclear localization signal or transport sequence to enter the nucleus, and exon 3 may contain specific sequence(s) or domain(s) that influence the NF-κB signal cascade. The discovery of novel BCA3 splicing indicates a new cancer research area, which may increase the understanding of cancer generation and development.