Single-nucleotide polymorphism in Vitamin D receptor gene and its association with dental caries in children.

Background: Though factors such as diet, oral hygiene, salivary flow and surface characteristics of the tooth enamel play a role in the causation of dental caries, genetic factors also contribute significantly in influencing the susceptibility or resistanance to the occurrence of caries.

Aims And Objectives: To analyse the relationship between a single nucleotide polymorphism in the vitamin D receptor gene TaqI locus and associate its presence with dental caries in children.

Materials And Methods: A case control study was conducted among 120 children in the age group of 6-12 years. 60 cases with a DMFT of >3 and 60 controls with a DMFT of 0 were selected. Genomic DNA was extracted from salivary samples collected from the patients and presence of polymorphism was analyzed by PCR-RFLP.

Results: Pearson chi square test and Fisher exact tests were used for comparison of differences in genotypes or allele frequencies between groups. No significant difference between the cases and control was observed among the different genotypes and the alleles. However, there was an inclination in the incidence of caries with the genotype 'tt' and 'Tt' when compared with the genotype'TT'.

Conclusion: In this study done to analyse the SNP in vitamin D receptor gene and its association with dental caries in children indicates a higher caries risk for a patient with't' allele and 'tt' genotype.