Preliminary study of the short tandem repeat region of human growth hormone gene in Japanese

The human growth hormone genes (hGH) are located on chromosome 17q22-24. A tandem repeat linked to hGH is highly polymorphic and the basic structure of the repeat is reported to be (AAAG) 3 ACAA(AG) 3 [(AAAG) x (AG) y (AAAG) z ]AAGG (AAAG)3 in Caucasians, but details of allelic structure have not been clarified in Japanese. The objective of this study was to provide the initial data of the hGH alleles and the structure of the tandem repeat in Japanese. In this study, the sequences of hGH alleles were analyzed in 56 healthy, unrelated Japanese. A total of 57 alleles were found and the degree of heterozygosity was 96.4%, however, 2 samples could not be sequenced. Our results provide the basic data of the hGH alleles in Japanese and point out the future improvement for forensic analysis of this locus.