Many genome-wide association studies have identified common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the 9p21 glaucoma locus (CDKN2B/CDKN2B-AS1) to be significantly associated with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), with association being stronger in normal tension glaucoma (NTG) and advanced glaucoma.
Japanese patients with NTG (n = 213) and HTG (n = 212) and 191 control subjects were genotyped for 5 non-IOP-related genetic variants predisposing to POAG near the SRBD1, ELOVL5, CDKN2B/CDKN2B-AS1, SIX1/SIX6, and ATOH7 genes.
There were significant differences in the rs1063192 (CDKN2B) and rs1900004 (ATOH7) allele frequencies between the NTG subjects and control subjects (P = 0.0023 and P = 0.028, respectively) and a significant difference (P = 0.013) in the rs1547014 (CHEK2) allele frequencies between the HTG subjects and control subjects.