Association of SERPINE2 with asthma.

Background The "Dutch hypothesis" suggests that asthma and COPD have common genetic determinants. The serpin peptidase inhibitor, clade E (nexin, plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1), member 2 ( SERPINE2 ) gene previously has been associated with COPD. We sought to determine whether SERPINE2 is associated with asthma and asthma-related phenotypes. Methods We measured the association of 39 SERPINE2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with asthma-related phenotypes in 655 parent-child trios from the Childhood Asthma Management Program (CAMP), and we measured the association of 19 SERPINE2 SNPs with asthma in a case-control design of 359 CAMP probands and 846 population control subjects. We attempted to replicate primary asthma-related phenotype findings in one independent population and primary asthma affection status findings in two independent populations. We compared association results with CAMP proband expression quantitative trait loci. Results Nine of 39 SNPs had P P 1 in CAMP are strongly correlated with SERPINE2 expression levels. Comparison of results to previous COPD studies identified five SNPs associated with both asthma- and COPD-related phenotypes. Conclusions Our results weakly support SERPINE2 as a Dutch hypothesis candidate gene through nominally significant associations with asthma and related traits. Further study of SERPINE2 is necessary to verify its involvement in asthma and COPD.