ABSTRACT
Background: Parkinson’s disease comes second comparing to Alzheimer’s disease being responsible for nerve destructing diseases; it is a complex and multifactorial disease. Gene associated studies help to identify the genetic factors that introduce the Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in different genes as genetic risk factors for non-Mendelian Parkinson’s disease in diverse populations. We intended to study the association of VDR (Vitamin D Receptor) gene polymorphisms with Parkinson’s disease in south western Iranian population. Results: In the present study 150 patients with Parkinson’s disease and 160 Healthy controls from an Iranian population were genotyped for two polymorphic sites. The prevalence of VDR polymorphisms in two restriction fragment length polymorphism sites including FokI and ApaI were analyzed in patients and controls. Our data demonstrated no significant association between VDR FokI polymorphism and PD, whereas the ApaI polymorphism showed a significant association with PD in Iranian patient. Also no association between the age at onset, the male-female ratio and the VDR polymorphism in the PD group was detected. Conclusions: In conclusion these results determined that VDR ApaI (TG and GG) genotype might affect development of PD in our study population. There was no association between FokI polymorphism and the risk of PD. Our results were analogous only with American/Hungarian Caucasian race.