Association Between rs12108497 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms of CASP3 Gene and Chronic Periodontitis in Korean Population

Objectives: Chronic periodontitis is a worldwide problem and a major cause of tooth loss in adults. It is also one of the most common oral diseases in Korea and continuously burdens social health insurance cost. CASP3 is a gene encoding a member of the caspase family, which is well known intracellular proteases that play a major role in cell apoptosis. A previous study using genome-wide human assay revealed the association between CASP3 polymorphism and chronic periodontitis. Thus, we performed this study to confirm the association between rs12108497 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of CASP3 gene and chronic periodontitis in the Korean population.
Methods: For this study, we used DNA samples extracted from 251 unrelated individual buccal swabs (183 patients and 68 control subjects were included). Their oral and dental status was examined and clinical information was evaluated. Genotyping of rs12108497 in CASP3 gene was determined by direct sequencing and the genotype was analyzed with SNPStats and SPSS 18.0 to evaluate odds ratios, 95% confidence intervals, and P values.
Results: Our results showed that rs12108497 SNP was significantly associated with chronic periodontitis in codominant (P=0.0034), dominant (P=0.0019), and log-additive models (P = 0.0007).
Conclusions: In conclusion, these results show that rs12108497 SNP in CASP3 gene might be related to the risk of periodontal disease in the Korean population.