Significant Association between OPG/TNFRSF11B Variant and Common Complex Ischemic Stroke

Abstract

The serum level of osteoprotegerin (encoded by OPG or TNFRSF11B) was previously shown to be increased in patients with ischemic stroke. A single nucleotide polymorphism rs3134069 in the TNFRSF11B gene was previously associated with ischemic stroke in a population of diabetic patients in Italy. It remains to be determined whether rs3134069 is associated with ischemic stroke in the general population or populations without diabetes. We genotyped rs3134069 and performed a case-control association study to test whether rs3134069 is associated with ischemic stroke in 2 independent Chinese Han populations, including a China-Central population with 1629 cases and 1504 controls and a China-Northern population with 1206 cases and 720 controls. rs3134069 showed significant association with ischemic stroke in the China-Central population (P = 9.24 × 10-3, odds ratio [OR] = 1.50). The association was replicated in the independent China-Northern population (P = 2.45 × 10-4, OR = 1.53). The association became more significant in the combined population (P = 7.09 × 10-6, OR = 1.41). The associations remained significant in the male population, female population, and population without type 2 diabetes. Our expression quantitative trait loci analysis found that the minor allele C of rs3134069 was significantly associated with a decreasedexpression level of TNFRSF11B (P = .002). This study demonstrates that rs3134069 in TNFRSF11B increases risk of ischemic stroke by decreasing TNFRSF11B expression.