We investigated the prevalence of a genetic variation in the factor V gene (G1691A Leiden mutation) and the prothrombin gene (G20210A) using polymerase chain reaction techniques in samples from 500 normal Thai population and among 50 unselected Thai patients with an objectively confirmed history of deep venous thrombosis. The prevalence of factor V Leiden and the prothrombin G20210A gene mutation in a group of 500 healthy controls was 0.2% in both groups (allele frequency of 0.1%). Of the 50 adult patients studied, none was a carrier of factor V Leiden or the prothrombin G20210A gene mutation. Our findings confirm that the prevalence of factor V Leiden and prothrombin G20210A gene mutation is lower among Asians than Caucasians and that the distribution of factor V Leiden is similar to that of the prothrombin G20210A variant. The low prevalence of these two mutations can, at least in part, account for the lower frequency of deep venous thrombosis reported in the Thai population. Screening for factor V Leiden and prothrombin gene mutation is of limited benefit and may not be cost-effective in Thai patients with the first episode of deep venous thrombosis.

ObjectiveOsteoarthritis (OA) is a multi-factorial disease and genetic factor is one of the important etiologic risk factors. Various genetic polymorphisms have been elucidated that they might be associated with OA. Recently, several studies have shown an association between Growth Differentiation Factor 5(GDF5) polymorphism and knee OA. However, the role of genetic predisposing factor in each ethnic group cannot be replicated to all, with conflicting data in the literatures. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between GDF5 polymorphism and knee OA in Thai population.Materials and MethodsOne hundred and ninety three patients aged 54-88 years who attended Ramathibodi Hospital were enrolled. Ninety cases with knee OA according to American College of Rheumatology criteria and one hundred and three cases in control group gave informed consent. Blood sample (5 ml) were collected for identification of GDF5 (rs143383) single nucleotide polymorphism by PCR/RFLP according to a standard protocol. This study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee on human experimentation of Ramathibodi Hospital Faculty of Medicine, Mahidol University. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for the risk of knee OA by genotype (TT, TC and CC) and allele (T/C) analyses.ResultsThe baseline characteristics between two groups including job, smoking and activity were not different, except age and BMI. The entire cases and controls were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p > 0.05). The OA knee group (n = 90) had genotypic figure which has shown by TT 42.2% (n = 38), TC 45.6% (n = 41) and CC 12% (n = 11), whereas the control group (n = 103) revealed TT 32% (n = 33), TC 45.6% (n = 47), and CC 22.3% (n = 23), respectively. Genotypic TT increased risk of knee OA as compared to CC [OR = 2.41 (P = 0.04, 95%CI = 1.02-5.67)]. In the allele analysis, the T allele was found to be significantly associated with knee OA [OR = 1.53 (P = 0.043, 95%CI = 1.01-2.30)].ConclusionThese data suggested that GDF5 polymorphism has an association with knee OA in Thai ethnic. This finding also supports the hypothesis that OA has an important genetic component in its etiology, and GDF5 protein might play important role in the pathophysiology of the disease.

Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is characterized by acute or subacute bilateral visual loss, and affects mostly young males. The most common mitochondrial DNA mutation responsible for LHON worldwide is G11778A. Despite different genetic backgrounds, which are believed to influence the disease expression, most features of LHON are quite common in different populations. However, there seem to be a few ethnic-specific differences. Analyses of our 30 G11778A LHON pedigrees in Thailand showed some characteristics different from those of Caucasians and Japanese. In particular, our pedigrees showed a lower male to female ratio of affected persons (2.6:1) and much higher prevalence of G11778A blood heteroplasmy (37% of the pedigrees contained at least one heteroplasmic G11778A individual). Heteroplasmicity seemed to influence disease manifestation in our patients but did not appear to alter the onset of the disease. The estimated overall penetrance of our G11778A LHON population was 37% for males and 13% for females. When each of our large pedigrees were considered separately, disease penetration varied from 9 to 45% between the pedigrees, and also varied between different branches of the same large pedigree. Survival analysis showed that the secondary LHON mutations G3316A and C3497T had a synergistic deleterious effect with the G11778A mutation, accelerating the onset of the disease in our patients.