Association of cadherin23 single nucleotide polymorphism with age-related hearing impairment in Han Chinese

Objective. Genetic variation of cadheri23 (cdh23; 753G>A in exon 7) has been implicated with age-related hearing impairment (ARHI) in mice. This study aimed to test the association of the CDH23 tag single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in intron 7 with ARHI in Han Chinese. Study Design. Individual cohort study. Setting. Tertiary medical center. Subjects and Methods. A total of 1175 Han Chinese subjects were divided into the case group (n = 310, 26% with poorest hearing) and the control group (n = 308, the 26% with best hearing) according to the Zhigh score converted from the original frequency-specific hearing thresholds. The CDH23 SNP locus (rs7087735: C/T) in intron 7 (coordinate: 72996763) shown in the HapMap was genotyped with correlation to the hearing phenotype. Results. The genotype distributions of CDH23 (CC/CT/TT) were not significantly different between the case and control group (P = .489). Compared with genotype CC, the odds ratios of the genotypes CT and TT for ARHI were not significantly different after adjustment for other environmental factors (P = .299 for CT; P = .610 for TT). Conclusions. Despite that the Ahl allele of Cdh23 had been implicated with ARHI in mice, we found no positive association of the CDH23 tag SNP in intron 7 with ARHI in Han Chinese. ? 2012 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation.