Novel genetic variants associated with lumbar disc degeneration in northern Europeans: a meta-analysis of 4600 subjects.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Lumbar disc degeneration (LDD) is an important cause of low back pain, which is a common and costly problem. LDD is characterised by disc space narrowing and osteophyte growth at the circumference of the disc. To date, the agnostic search of the genome by genome-wide association (GWA) to identify common variants associated with LDD has not been fruitful. This study is the first GWA meta-analysis of LDD.

Methods

We have developed a continuous trait based on disc space narrowing and osteophytes growth which is measurable on all forms of imaging (plain radiograph, CT scan and MRI) and performed a meta-analysis of five cohorts of Northern European extraction each having GWA data imputed to HapMap V.2.

Results

This study of 4600 individuals identified four single

SUBMITTER: Williams FM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3686263 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature