The Association of Vitamin D Receptor Gene (VDR) ApaI Polymorphism with the Risk of Breast Cancer in Markazi Province Women

Abstract Background: Biological and epidemiological data indicate that the levels of vitamin D maybe affect the breast cancer risk. Vitamin D plays an important role in cell proliferation, apoptosis and tumor growth suppression. Vitamin D receptor is a critical mediator for the cellular reactions of vitamin D. Some of the epidemiological studies, reviewed the relationship between VDR gene polymorphism ApaI and breast cancer, but the controversial findings have been achieved. Materials and Methods: In this study, a population-based case-control study including 140 patients and 160 healthy individuals of women in Markazi Province were evaluated using PCR-RFLP approach. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples using the salting-out procedure. Polymorphism of interest was determined by PCR-RFLP method using ApaI enzyme and statistical analysis was performed by SPSS software. Results: Based on the results of this study, distribution of AA genotype in cancer and control groups was, 38.6 and 26.87, for AC genotype 55.00 and 66.87, and finally for CC genotype 6.43 and 6.26 respectively. The results of this study showed no association between ApaI polymorphism of the VDR gene and breast cancer(OR=0.903,CI=95%, 0.29-2.95.) Conclusion: In this study, we found no association between ApaI polymorphism and breast cancer, which are consistent with the findings of some other researchs. It is necessary to examine a larger population to achieve more definitive results