Association of CLU gene polymorphism with Parkinson's disease in Chinese Han Population.

Background Clusterin (CLU) plays important role in the pathology of neurodegenerative disorders. Recently, genetic variant of CLU rs9331896 has been reported as a risk estimate for Alzheimer disease (AD). However, the association between this variant and risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) in Chinese Han population remains elusive. Methods We sequenced CLU rs9331896 in 353 PD patients and 326 healthy-matched individuals of Chinese Han population. The genotypes of rs9331896 were analyzed by Agena MassArray in accordance with the platform directions. The distribution of genotypes and allelic frequencies was analyzed by Chi-square test. Additionally, the expression of CLU protein in plasma was evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and analysed with T test. Results TT genotype in rs9331896 in a recessive model was found to be associated with the increased risk of PD (OR=1.408, 95%CI = (1.034, 1.916), p=0.029). Subgroup analysis indicated that TT genotype carriers showed a significantly higher risk in male PD patients when compared to male healthy controls (OR=1.611, 95%CI = (1.046, 2.483), p =0.030). Besides, CLU levels in plasma of PD patients were significantly higher than controls (p =0.024). Conclusions CLU-rs9331896-TT genotype was a risk factor for PD, particularly in males. PD patients also expressed a high level of CLU in plasma.