Associations between CRYBA4 gene variants and high myopia in a Japanese population

Purpose: The crystallin beta A4 (CRYBA4) gene variant, rs2009066, was previously reported to be associated with high myopia in a southern Chinese population. In the present study, we investigated whether CRYBA4 variants were associated with high myopia in a Japanese population. Methods: We recruited 1,063 Japanese patients with high myopia (spherical equivalent [SE] ≤-9.00 D in both eyes) and 1,009 healthy Japanese subjects (SE >-1.00 D). We genotyped rs2009066 and three tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), rs16982456, rs2071861, and rs4276, in the CRYBA4 region. Results: We did not find any significant association between these four SNPs and high myopia in an allele analysis. However, rs2009066 and rs2071861, which were in strong linkage disequilibrium (LD; r2=0.86), showed a marginal association with high myopia in the recessive genotype model of risk alleles (rs2009066 G allele: P=0.032, odds ratio [OR] =1.31; rs2071861 A allele: P=0.037, OR =1.31). Nevertheless, this association became insignificant after correcting for multiple testing (Pc >0.05). Conclusion: This study showed no significant association between CRYBA4 variants and high myopia in a Japanese population. Our findings did not correspond with a previous study. Further genetic studies with other populations are needed to elucidate a potential contribution of the CRYBA4 region in the development of high myopia.