Assessment of genetic markers associated with the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in premature infants in the structure of a prognostic model of its development

Abstract

Introduction. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a complex disease with a significant genetic predisposition. The aim of the study was to determine genetic markers associated with the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in premature infants. 
 Materials and methods. At Stage 1, whole exome sequencing followed by the bioinformatic analysis of one hundred samples was provided to evaluate the genetic variants. Sequencing data were compared with the data of the children without any congenital pulmonary diseases. At Stage 2, the obtained results were validated using real-time PCR. Further the genotyping of the control group (n = 70) was performed. The obtained frequencies of nucleotide variants were compared between the groups, as well as with general population data using the RUSeq database. 
 Results. The prevalence of genetic variant rs12489516 in gene CPA3 was significantly higher in the control group of premature infants (p = 0.03; OR = 0.2; 95% CI: 0.02–0.94). Its presence in the genotype reduces the likelihood of developing BPD by 4.76 times. Moreover, statistically significant differences were also identified in the prevalence of rs45488997 in gene CCN2 (p = 0.023). This genetic variant was specific only for children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia. It was also identified that the prevalence of the nucleotide variant rs45488997 in the CCN2 gene was statistically more common among patients with bronchopulmonary dysplasia compared with the general population (p = 0.005). In addition, genetic variants rs5744174 in gene TLR5 and rs2476601 in gene PTPN22 were less frequently observed in the investigated group compared to the general population (p = 0.03 and p = 0.003, respectively). 
 Conclusion. Identification of genetic markers together with clinical and laboratory data will contribute to the development of an effective predictive model for the calculation of the probability of BPD.