News
Boston University researchers suspect gene linked to COPD
HealthDay News
Gene variants that may be associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have been identified by Boston University School of Medicine researchers.
They studied 7,691 participants in the Framingham Heart Study in an attempt to identify a relationship between common genetic variants and measures of lung function. This led them to gene variants on chromosome 4 that could be a potential risk factor for the disease.
“Several interesting genes are present in the region that we identified, including a gene (HHIP) interacting with a biological pathway involved in lung development, but it is not yet clear which gene in the region explains the association,” lead author Jemma Wilk, an assistant professor of neurology, said in a university news release.The study appeared today in PLoS Genetics.
