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Polymorphisms in SPINK5 are not associated with asthma in a Dutch population.

Jongepier H, Koppelman GH, Nolte IM, Bruinenberg M, Bleecker ER, Meyers DA, te Meerman GJ, Postma DS

Department of Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Beatrixoord, The Netherlands.

BACKGROUND: Asthma and allergic phenotypes are complex genetic diseases with known linkage to chromosome 5q. This region has many candidate genes, including serine protease inhibitor Kazal type 5 (SPINK5), which has been associated with asthma and atopic dermatitis in family-based studies of children with atopic dermatitis. OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate whether single nucleotide polymorphisms in SPINK5 are associated with asthma, atopic phenotypes, and atopic dermatitis. METHODS: We investigated whether single nucleotide polymorphisms in SPINK5 (ie, -785 A/G, Asn368Ser, and Lys420Glu) are associated with asthma, atopic phenotypes, and atopic dermatitis in 200 families ascertained by a proband with asthma (nonaffected spouses served as a matched control population) and an independent set of 252 trios with asthma. RESULTS: We found no association with asthma, atopic phenotypes, and atopic dermatitis after correction for multiple testing. CONCLUSION: The negative results in this study suggest that SPINK5 is not associated with asthma or atopic phenotypes in individuals ascertained by a proband with asthma. This is consistent with the finding that SPINK5 is not expressed in the lung. Because our patients were ascertained for asthma, a role of SPINK5 in atopic dermatitis cannot be excluded.

Published 8 March 2005 in J Allergy Clin Immunol, 115(3): 486-92.
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