Association between fibroblast growth factor 7 and the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Aim: Fibroblast growth factor 7 (FGF7) is involved in a number of physiological and pathological processes, including lung disease. However, relatively little is known about the effect of FGF7 gene polymorphisms on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) susceptibility. This study aimed to investigate the association between FGF7 polymorphisms with COPD susceptibility in a Chinese Han population. Methods: We conducted a case-control study of 279 COPD patients and 367 age-and gender-distribution-matched control subjects. The tagging SNPs rs10519225 and rs7170426 in FGF7 were genotyped by SNaPshot. The associations of each SNP genotype and haplotype constructed by these loci with COPD were analyzed. Results: A multivariate analysis showed that rs10519225 was significantly associated with an increased risk of COPD (P=0.011, OR=1.535, FDR q=0.022), whereas no association was found for rs7170426. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis showed that these loci were in weak LD, with an r(2) of 0.033 and a D' of 0.232 (95% CI: 0.150-0.520). The haplotype constructed by allele G at rs10519225 and allele A at rs7170426 was associated with a decreased susceptibility to COPD (P=0.012, OR=0.751, FDR q=0.048). Conclusion: These findings suggest that FGF7 may be one susceptibility factor for COPD.