ABSTRACT

With an increasing incidence and prevalence, Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), is a bad prognosed and high cost common public health problem. KLOTHO gene which is defined as aging suppressor gene is highly expressed in kidneys. Decreased Vitamin D receptor (VDR) activation plays a role in CKD morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study is to examine the association between CKD and polymorphisms of KLOTHO (G395A and C1818T) and VDR (ApaI and TaqI) genes as well as investigating the effects of these polymorphisms on different clinical phenotype of the disease.

In 104 cases diagnosed to have CKD and 104 healthy controls, KLOTHO gene G395A, C1818T polymorphisms were studied by DNA sequence analysis and VDR gene ApaI and TaqI polymorphisms were studied by polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR– RFLP) method.

No statistical difference was found in genotype and allele frequencies for KLOTHO gene G395A, C1818T and VDR gene TaqI polymorphisms between the groups. VDR gene ApaI polymorphism was found to be significantly higher in the patient group than in the control group (p=0.018).

Our results demonstrated that VDR gene ApaI polymorphism may be related to CKD and may be a risk factor for the development of the disease.