Investigation of Association between Autophagy-Related Gene Polymorphisms and Pseudoexfoliation Syndrome and Pseudoexfoliation Glaucoma in a Spanish Population

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Cellular stress conditions are important mechanisms implicated in the pathogenesis of pseudoexfoliation syndrome. One of the potential cellular responses to these stress conditions is induction of autophagy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether genetic variants in three critical genes of autophagy (ATG16L, ATG2B, ATG5) may be involved in the development of pseudoexfoliation syndrome (XFS) and pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (XFG) in a Spanish population. Methods: 108 patients (64 XFS, 44XFG) and 118 healthy controls were evaluated. The analysis of genetic polymorphisms was performed by standard TaqMan allelic discrimination technique. Results: No significant differences in either genotype distributions or allelic frequencies of the tested polymorphisms were found between patients with XFS/XFG and control subjects. Conclusions: Our results suggest that these three genes that are critical components of the autophagy pathway (ATG16L, ATG2B, ATG5) are not significant risk factors among Spanish patients with either XFS or XFG.

Keywords:

• Autophagy
• genetics
• glaucoma
• polymorphisms
• pseudoexfoliation

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank the staff at the University Hospital of Salamanca and Molecular Medicine Unit for their technical assistance

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.