Effect of PITX2 genetic variants on the susceptibility to stroke in the Chinese Han population

Purpose: Stroke is a multifactorial and complex disease caused by the obstruction or rupture of cerebrovascular. To explore the influence of genetic factors on stroke susceptibility, we investigated the association between four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the paired-like homeodomain transcription factor 2 (PITX2) gene and stroke risk. Methods: A total of 977 volunteers including 476 stroke patients and 501 control individuals were recruited. The association between PITX2 polymorphisms and stroke risk was evaluated using genetic models and haplotype analyses. The strength of the association between each studied polymorphisms and stroke risk was evaluated by calculating odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). What's more, multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) was used to predict the interaction between SNPs. Results: Our study showed that rs6817105 in PITX2 was related to a significant increase in stroke susceptibility (OR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.04-1.94, p = 0.028). Stratified analyses based on gender indicated that rs6817105, rs13143308, and rs6843082 polymorphisms were significantly associated with an increased risk of stroke in male (OR = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.47-0.99, p = 0.042; OR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.30-0.96, p = 0.035; and OR = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.30-0.99, p = 0.047). Besides, SNP rs6817105 was significantly increased the risk of stroke in people at age over 65 years (OR = 1.87, 95% CI =1.12-3.11, p = 0.016). MDR showed that the interaction model of rs6817105 and rs3853445 emerged as the best predictor between the PITX2 gene and stroke susceptibility. Conclusions: This study indicated that there was a significant association between the PITX2 gene and stroke risk, and provided some data as far as possible to support the prevention of stroke.