Association of bone morphogenetic protein-4 gene polymorphism with periodontitis in a Taiwanese population

Background/purpose: Bone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP-4) plays an important role during embryonic development of tooth and bone. Studies have found that the BMP-4 polymorphism rs17563 (T>C) influenced bone loss around implants; however, its impact on penodontitis has never been determined. Association of the polymorphism with periodontitis was evaluated. Materials and methods: Two hundred Taiwanese were grouped into aggressive periodontitis (AgP), chronic periodontitis (CP), and healthy controls (NC) according to a clinical examination. BMP-4 polymorphism was evaluated by polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism. Distributions of the polymorphism among the groups were compared. Results: In the AgP, CP, and HC groups, no significant differences of genotype and allele distributions among homozgotes (CC or TT) and heterozygotes (C/T), between IT and CT-I-CC, or between the alleles of T and C was found. Using logistic regression, there was no significantly different distribution between each disease group (AgP, CP, or AgP+CP) and HC, although their odds ratios increased in the genotypes of CC, CT, and CC+CT if compared with that of TT, and in the allele of C when compared with the allele T. A higher C allele frequency, but without significance (P = 0.066), was observed in CP than that in HC. Conclusion: The BMP-4 polymorphism may not be correlated with periodontitis. However, there is a trend that patients with chronic periodontitis may have a high C allele frequency in BMP-4 compared to healthy controls. Copyright (C) 2013, Association for Dental Sciences of the Republic of China. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. All rights reserved.