\set{final}

\def\Author{Ayala-Lugo}
\def\author{ayala-lugo}
\def\vol{13}
\def\year{2007}
\def\anum{18}
\def\pages{151-163}
\def\txt_title{Variation in optineurin (OPTN) allele frequencies between and within populations}
\def\txt_authors{Rosa M. Ayala-Lugo, Hemant Pawar, David M. Reed, Paul R. Lichter, Sayoko E. Moroi, Michael Page, James Eadie, Veronica Azocar, Eugenio Maul, Christine Ntim-Amponsah, William Bromley, Ebenezer Obeng-Nyarkoh, A. Tim Johnson, Theresa Guckian Kijek, Catherine A. Downs, Jenae M. Johnson, Rodolfo A. Perez-Grossmann, Maria-Luisa Guevara-Fujita, Ricardo Fujita, Margaret R. Wallace, Julia E. Richards}

\def\rcvd{30 October 2006}
\def\accept{23 January 2007}
\def\publ{2 February 2007}
\def\pdfsize{}
\def\PMID{}


\include{mvstyle.hsm}

\| External links
\def\doi{http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/bookhome/104086575?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0}
\def\are{http://cran.r-project.org/}

\| Internal defs
\def\Asuncion{Asunci\oacute n}
\def\Genetica{Gen\eacute tica}
\def\Biologia{Biolog\iacute a}
\def\Martin{Mart\iacute n}
\def\Peru{Per\uacute}


\article{


\title{Variation in \i{optineurin} (\i{OPTN}) allele frequencies between
and within populations}

\authors{\mailto{rositaya@yahoo.com}{Rosa M. Ayala-Lugo},\sup{1,2}
\mailto{hpawar@umich.edu}{Hemant Pawar},\sup{1}
\mailto{dmreed@umich.edu}{David M. Reed},\sup{1}
\mailto{plichter@umich.edu}{Paul R. Lichter},\sup{1}
\mailto{smoroi@umich.edu}{Sayoko E. Moroi},\sup{1}
\mailto{miapage@lhs.org}{Michael Page},\sup{1}
\mailto{eadiej@umich.edu}{James Eadie},\sup{1}
\mailto{vazocar@rdc.cl}{Veronica Azocar},\sup{3}
\mailto{emaul@med.puc.cl}{Eugenio Maul},\sup{3}
\mailto{cnamponsah@hotmail.com}{Christine Ntim-Amponsah},\sup{4}
\mailto{bromley@acadia.net}{William Bromley},\sup{5}
\mailto{brodac7@hotmail.com}{Ebenezer Obeng-Nyarkoh},\sup{5}
\mailto{a-tim-johnson@uiowa.edu}{A. Tim Johnson},\sup{6}
\mailto{iguckian@umich.edu}{Theresa Guckian Kijek},\sup{1}
\mailto{downs@umich.edu}{Catherine A. Downs},\sup{1}
\mailto{jenaemarie@hotmail.com}{Jenae M. Johnson},\sup{1}
\mailto{raperezg@hotmail.com}{Rodolfo A. Perez-Grossmann},\sup{7}
\mailto{mguevara1@usmp.edu.pe}{Maria-Luisa Guevara-Fujita},\sup{7}
\mailto{rfujita@usmp.edu.pe}{Ricardo Fujita},\sup{7}
\mailto{peggyw@mgm.ufl.edu}{Margaret R. Wallace},\sup{8}
\mailto{richj@umich.edu}{Julia E. Richards}\sup{1,9} \br\sp\br(The first
two authors contributed equally to this publication)}


\institutions{\sup{1}Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences,
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; \sup{2}Universidad Nacional
de \Asuncion, Hospital San Pablo, \Asuncion, Paraguay;
\sup{3}Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; \sup{4}University
of Ghana, Accra, Ghana; \sup{5}Center for Human Genetics, Bar Harbor,
ME; \sup{6}Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, The
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA; \sup{7}Centro de \Genetica\ y
\Biologia\ Molecular, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de San \Martin\
de Porres, Lima, \Peru; \sup{8}University of Florida, Gainesville, FL;
\sup{9}Department of Epidemiology, The University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, MI}

\correspondence{Julia E. Richards, Ph.D., 229 W.K. Kellogg Eye Center,
1000 Wall Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48105; Phone: (734) 936-8966; FAX:
(734) 615-0542; email: richj@umich.edu}

\abstract

\abs_purpose{To evaluate the extent to which mutations in the
\i{optineurin} (\i{OPTN}) glaucoma gene play a role in glaucoma in
different populations.}

\abs_methods{Case-controlled study of \i{OPTN} sequence variants in
individuals with or without glaucoma in populations of different
ancestral origins and evaluate previous \i{OPTN} reports. We analyzed
314 subjects with African, Asian, Caucasian and Hispanic ancestries
included 229 cases of primary open-angle glaucoma, 51 cases of
juvenile-onset open-angle glaucoma, 33 cases of normal tension glaucoma,
and 371 controls. Polymerase chain reaction-amplified \i{OPTN} coding
exons were resequenced and case frequencies were compared to frequencies
in controls matched for ancestry.}

\abs_results{The E50K sequence variant was identified in one individual
from Chile with normal tension glaucoma, and the 691_692insAG variant
was found in one Ashkenazi Jewish individual from Russia. The R545Q
variant was found in two Asian individuals with primary open-angle
glaucoma; one of Filipino ancestry and one of Korean ancestry. In
addition to presenting \i{OPTN} allele frequencies for Caucasian and
Asian populations that have been the subject of previous reports, we
also present information for populations of Hispanic and black African
ancestries.}

\abs_conclusions{Our study contributes additional evidence to support
the previously reported association of the \i{OPTN} E50K mutation with
glaucoma. After finding an additional 691_692insAG \i{OPTN} variant, we
can still only conclude that this variant is rare. Combined analysis of
our data with data from more than a dozen other studies indicates no
association of R545Q with glaucoma in most populations. Those same
studies disagree in their conclusions regarding the role of M98K in
glaucoma. Our analysis of the combined data provides statistically
significant evidence of association of M98K with normal tension glaucoma
in Asian populations, but not in Caucasian populations; however, the
validity of this conclusion is questionable because of large differences
in allele frequencies between and within populations. It is currently
not possible to tell how much of the underlying cause of the allele
frequency difference is attributable to demographic, technical, or
ascertainment differences among the studies.}

\introduction

\p{The optic neuropathy called glaucoma is the second most common cause
of bilateral blindness in the world [1]. The most frequent form of
glaucoma is open-angle glaucoma (OAG), which can occur as adult-onset
primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) or juvenile-onset primary open-angle
glaucoma (JOAG). Prevalence of OAG has been measured at higher
frequencies in individuals of African ancestry than in those of European
or Asian ancestry [2]. Although the most common form of OAG in the US
involves elevated intraocular pressure (IOP), OAG also develops in
individuals whose IOP is never observed outside of the normal range
(normal tension glaucoma, NTG). Associated risk factors for OAG include
race (i.e., population genetic factors, particularly ethnic ancestry), a
family history of glaucoma, increasing age, and an IOP elevated above
the normal range.}

\p{During the last decade, genetic mapping and cloning experiments have
demonstrated that glaucoma has substantial genetic components [3]. Among
the more than one dozen mapped glaucoma loci, 11 GLC1 loci cause OAG
[3], two GLC3 loci cause congenital glaucoma [4,5], and the remaining
known loci are responsible for secondary and developmental forms of
glaucoma [3]. Additional genetic risk factors for differential severity
of OAG have been reported [3].}

\p{Mutations in the myocilin (\i{MYOC}) gene at the GLC1A locus are
found in 2.6-4.3% of POAG cases [6] and up to one-third of the familial
JOAG cases [7]. There has not yet been a follow-up on a recent report
that mutations in WD repeat domain 36 (WDR36) that occur in cases of
POAG that map to the GLC1G locus on chromosome 5 [8].}

\p{Rezaie et al. [9] described mutations in the \i{optineurin}
(\i{OPTN}) gene, located within the GLC1E interval at 10p15-p14 [10], in
16.7% of families from a predominantly NTG population. The original
report of \i{OPTN} involvement in glaucoma presented three likely
disease-causing variants designated E50K, 691_692insAG, and R545Q, and
one proposed risk factor M98K [9]. Further studies find association of
some \i{OPTN} alleles with OAG, but others report no evidence of
association of OAG with those same alleles [11-24].}

\p{In this paper, we present new data on our \i{OPTN} mutation screening
of 314 open-angle glaucoma patients who have either POAG, JOAG, or NTG,
from populations of Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic, and African ancestry. We
present case reports of individuals with E50K and 691_692insAG mutations
and discuss findings from more than a dozen studies that have carried
out \i{OPTN} mutation screening.}

\methods

\subsection{Subjects}

\p{Informed consent was obtained from each participant according to a
HIPAA-compliant study protocol approved by The University of Michigan
Institutional Review Board for review of human subjects studies.
Ophthalmologic examinations included slit-lamp biomicroscopy, optic disk
examination, IOP by applanation, gonioscopy, and refraction. Individuals
with known surgical or pharmacologic risk factors for glaucoma, such as
steroid use, were excluded from this study.}

\p{OAG was diagnosed based on the presence of open filtration angles,
glaucomatous optic discs and glaucomatous visual field changes.
Individuals with elevated IOP, greater than or equal to 22 mmHg, were
considered to have POAG if they showed adult-onset at 35 years of age or
older, and to have JOAG if they showed onset prior to 35 years of age.
They were deemed to have NTG if their highest known IOP never exceeded
21 mmHg.}

\p{\tabref{1} lists our study case and control subjects by their
diagnosis and ancestry. Our 314 OAG subjects included 51 JOAG, 230 POAG,
and 33 NTG cases. Our control samples came from 371 unrelated
individuals. Normal control samples were matched for race to the cases,
so that a sequence variant found in a particular case population had
control screening carried out only in the control population of the same
ancestry. In most cases, the sample screened was the proband of the
family, but sometimes a different case from that family had to be used,
such as when the proband was someone with an ambiguous diagnosis. For
some families in which the proband had a sequence variant of interest,
additional relatives were also screened. The group of normal control
samples included samples from 48 individuals of African ancestry
(Corielle Institute, Camden, NJ), 19 individuals of Hispanic ancestry,
and 99 individuals of Asian ancestry (Corielle Institute) who had not
been characterized for ophthalmologic phenotype. These uncharacterized
population controls were used in a subset of experiments as detailed in
Results.}

\subsection{Mutation Screening}

\p{\i{OPTN} was screened via sequencing of polymerase chain reaction
(PCR) amplified DNA. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood
samples using Puregene DNA Isolation kits (Gentra Systems, Minneapolis,
MN) following the manufacurer's protocol. \i{OPTN} coding exons were
amplified by PCR in a 20 \mu l reaction containing 50 ng of genomic DNA,
1.5 mmol/l MgCl\sub{2}, 0.5 \mu mol/l of each primer, 0.125 mmol/l of
each dNTP, and 0.5 units of Amplitaq Gold (PE Applied Biosystems, Foster
City, CA) in 1X final concentration of the PCR buffer. Primers used for
exon amplification are listed in \tabref{2}. PCR conditions were 10 min
at 95 \deg C followed by 36 cycles of 1 min at 95 \deg C, 1 min at 55
\deg C, and 1 min at 72 \deg C with a final extension for 10 min at 72
\deg C. Sequencing of PCR-amplified DNA was used to screen all 314 OAG
cases for mutations in the coding sequences (i.e., exons 4 through 16)
and splice sites flanking \i{OPTN} exons. When a sequence variant was
detected in a patient, we screened for that specific mutation in the
control population samples of the same ancestry.}

\p{Individuals with E50K and 691_692insAG mutations who are presented in
the case reports were screened for mutations in \i{MYOC}. PCR
amplification of the three \i{MYOC} exons was conducted as described in
reference [7] with some modified primers as listed in \tabref{3}. PCR
products were purified with a QIAquick PCR purification kit (Qiagen,
Santa Clarita, CA). Sequenced PCR products were analyzed on an ABI 377
sequencer or at the University of Michigan DNA Sequencing Core facility
on either an ABI 3730 or 3700 sequencer.}

\subsection{Statistical Analysis}

\p{Published reports on the frequency of OAG mutations were compared
using several different statistical tests. Because some studies
contained expected frequencies of less than 5, Fisher's exact test was
chosen to examine the 2x2 contingency tables of individual studies. In
tandem with Fisher's exact test, odds ratios and 95% confidence
intervals for the odds ratio were calculated. To estimate odds ratios
for whole populations based on multiple studies, fixed effect estimates
were calculated using a Mantel-Haenszel (MH) model [25]. Homogeneity was
evaluated with the Woolf test, in which the p value allows a
determination of the appropriateness of combining studies by testing for
evidence of effect modification by study group (i.e., testing whether
the odds ratios are the same in all studies). For a case-control study,
an odds ratio greater than 1 indicates that OAG cases are more likely to
have the gene of interest than controls. For 2x2 contingency tables,
independence is equivalent to an odds ratio of 1. All statistics were
computed using the open source statistical program R 2.3.1 with the
packages rmeta 2.12, meta 0.5, and vcd 0.9-7. [26-29]}

\results

\subsection{E50K \i{OPTN} mutation in a case with normal tension
glaucoma}

\p{Case 1, a 52 year old Chilean female (III:1; \figref{1}), was
diagnosed with NTG at age 42 years and her highest pretreatment IOP was
18 mmHg in both eyes. After bilateral trabeculectomies and betaxolol
treatment, her IOPs were 6 mmHg in the right eye and 10 mmHg in the left
eye. Gonioscopic exam revealed open angles in both eyes, with iris
processes noted circumferentially in both eyes. A dilated funduscopic
exam demonstrated advanced glaucomatous cupping with cup-to-disc ratios
of 1.0 in both eyes and absence of hemorrhage. Sequence changes were
absent in the \i{MYOC} gene coding sequence and splice sites. Her family
history showed evidence of autosomal dominant inheritance (\figref{1}).
The E50K mutation was found in three of the proband's four affected
relatives that were in the study (II:1, III:2, and III:7; \figref{1}).
The E50K mutation was absent in the proband's affected aunt (II:3;
\figref{1}) as well as five unaffected relatives that were screened
(\figref{1}).}

\subsection{691_692insAG \i{OPTN} mutation in a case with primary
open-angle glaucoma}

\p{Case 2 was a female Russian Ashkenazi Jewish immigrant diagnosed with
POAG at 80 years of age. Her ocular history was significant for high
myopia (right eye -17.75 diopters, left eye -19.00 diopters) and myopic
retinal degeneration in both eyes. The patient had a childhood history
of measles, a disease that has been identified as a possible contributor
to high myopia. [30,31] At the time of the POAG diagnosis, the patient
already had dense, 4-quadrant visual field defects in both eyes,
attributable to the retinal degeneration, or a long-standing undiagnosed
glaucoma, or both. She had cup-to-disc ratios of 0.5 in both eyes and
diffuse chorioretinal atrophy. Her IOPs were 22 mmHg in the right eye
and 21 mmHg in the left eye. Her IOPs decreased to 17 mmHg in the right
eye and 16 mmHg in the left eye at one month after treatment with
betaxolol, dipivefrin, and pilocarpine. Over the next several years, her
IOPs fluctuated between the low teens and mid-twenties while she
underwent treatment with medication, laser treatments, and multiple
trabeculectomies. Screening of the \i{OPTN} gene revealed an insertion
of AG at positions 691 and 692 (691_692insAG) in one copy of the
\i{OPTN} gene. There were no other sequence variants in the coding
sequence or splice sites of either \i{OPTN} or \i{MYOC.} Little family
history information was available. She had a maternal grandfather
affected by high myopia, but she didn't know of any other cases of
glaucoma in her small family. Her only living relative, a reportedly
unaffected son, declined to participate in the study.}

\subsection{R545Q and M98K \i{OPTN} sequence variants}

\p{The R545Q sequence variant was found in two individuals with OAG. One
woman with Filipino ancestry had JOAG diagnosed at 24 years of age and
had a maximum known pretreatment IOP of 50 mmHg. Her mother also had
POAG and her brother is unaffected. She did not know the diagnostic
status of the rest of her relatives in the Philippines. The second case,
a Korean woman diagnosed at 55 years of age, had a maximum known IOP of
29 mmHg and an unknown family history of glaucoma.}

\p{Among 36 OAG cases with the M98K mutation, the 26 for whom we have
historical IOP data had known maximum IOPs between 16 mmHg and 55 mmHg
(mean=29.6 mmHg). Out of the 283 OAG cases who lacked the M98K mutation,
253 had historical IOP data available, with the maximum recorded IOPs
ranging from 14 mmHg up to 77 mmHg (mean=29.9 mmHg).}

\subsection{\i{OPTN} sequence variants in the whole study cohort}

\p{Among the 314 OAG cases, we found a total of four (1.2%) individuals
who possessed any of the three sequence variants reported by Rezaie and
colleagues [9] to be disease-causing variants (\tabref{4}).}

\p{The E50K mutation in Case 1 was the only instance of E50K among the
314 OAG cases (1/314, 0.3%) and in none of 371 controls (\lt 2.7%), and
was one of only 11 Hispanic cases screened (1/11, 9.1%; \tabref{4}).
E50K was identified in one of the 33 NTG cases (3.0%), but was not
present in the 230 POAG or 51 JOAG cases. This mutation was present in
1/11 (9.1%) Hispanic cases and none of 50 Hispanic controls. It was also
absent from 86 Caucasian normal controls.}

\p{The single instance of 691_692insAG in Case 2 was found among the 314
OAG cases (1/314, 0.3%), and was one of 217 Caucasian OAG cases screened
(0.5%; \tabref{4}). This was one of 230 POAG cases (0.4%) and was not
present in 116 Caucasian controls, including seven samples that share
Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry with the case having the mutation. In
addition, 691_692insAG was present in one case in the original report by
Rezeai [9] but that report did not provide information on ancestry of
that case, so we could not tell whether their case and our case shared
ancestral origins. This mutation was also previously reported as being
absent from 200 normal control chromosomes of Caucasian origin [9].}

\p{R545Q was present in two of the 314 OAG cases (0.6%; \tabref{4}). It
was found once among the 51 JOAG cases (1.9%) and once among the 33 NTG
cases (3.0%). Both instances of R545Q were found in individuals of Asian
ancestry (2/5, 40.0%). R545Q was also present in 11 of 117 (9.4%)
controls of Asian ancestry. The absence of this allele from our
Caucasian cases or controls (0/333, \lt 0.3%) concords with previous
reports that failed to find it in either cases or controls of European
ancestry (0/1457), suggesting that the allele frequency in European
populations may be less than 0.1% [9,11,13,22,23,32,33]. Based on our
data, we suggest that R545Q may be of low prevalence in African (\lt
0.6%) or Hispanic populations (\lt 1.6%), but our ability to estimate
frequencies in these populations is limited because of sample size.}

\p{The M98K sequence variant was found in JOAG, POAG, NTG, and control
populations (\tabref{5} and \tabref{6}). We observed statistically
insignificant differences in the frequencies between cases and controls
for Africans and Caucasians, the two large sample sets in the study
(\tabref{5}). Frequencies in Asian samples (32/122, 26.2%) resembled
values for African samples (18/81, 22.2%), while frequencies for
Hispanic samples (2/62, 3.2%) seemed more similar to frequencies for
Caucasian samples (8/116, 6.9%), but sample sizes were small.
Additionally, the Asian samples showed no difference between cases and
controls (p value=0.112), but the sample size was small and the use of a
predominantly Chinese population to control for findings from a mixed
Asian case set was problematic when looking at an allele that showed
considerable variation among populations. Thus, although our overall
study population showed M98K in 36 of 314 OAG individuals (11.5%) and 58
of 371 controls (15.6%), such pooling of data from different
racial/ethnic groups is invalid where population frequencies vary so
greatly.}

\p{Screening identified two instances of E322K in both cases and
controls - a change previously reported to be associated with glaucoma
[9] (\tabref{4}). We also found silent \i{OPTN} coding sequence
polymorphisms, including L32L, T34T, L41L, E63E, A134A, and S321S, as
well as previously reported intronic sequence variants
[4,10,11,20,24,34,35]. We did not find Ile88Val or Ala99Ser in our case
populations, but did observe them among our controls (\tabref{4}).}

\subsection{Pooled data on R545Q}

\p{R545Q was present in our Asian data set, but absent from the other
three populations we screened. We found no significant differences in
allele frequencies between cases and controls for R545Q. This agrees
with many of the other published studies, although it should be noted
that Mukhopadhyay et al. [19] did report the case-control difference to
be significant (\tabref{6}). Evaluation of odds ratios and frequencies
for each of the Asian studies showed no statistically significant
differences between case and control values for any of the Asian data
sets (\figref{2}, \tabref{6}). With the exception of the Rezaie study
[9], R545Q has been reported only in Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
Filipino, Indian, and mixed-ancestry populations (\tabref{6}).}

\p{Our Asian data set is small, so we examined the possibility of
pooling data from multiple studies. Because of observed variation in
allele frequencies among studies (0.6-6.8%; \tabref{6}), we questioned
whether the data could be validly combined. Using the Woolf test for
heterogeneity to address this question, we found no statistically
significant study-based stratification within the individual populations
for R545Q (\tabref{7}). This means that it is reasonable to take data
from the studies in \tabref{6} and pool them for a given population from
multiple studies under a model of homogeneity. When pooled, we found no
statistically significant difference between case and control values for
the combined Asian data set (p value=0.541), nor for the separate
Chinese (p value=0.89) or Japanese (p value=0.43) subsets (\tabref{7}).
The same lack of difference was true when considering only NTG cases.}

\subsection{Pooled data on M98K}

\p{We found no evidence of significant difference between case and
control frequencies for M98K in our Asian, African, Hispanic, or
Caucasian populations (\tabref{8}). Fuse and Alward reported
statistically significant evidence of association of M98K with OAG in
the Japanese population, although Alward indicated that this difference
becomes nonsignificant when adjusted for testing multiple times.
[11,17]. Other studies do not report a significant case-control
difference [11-24].}

\p{Previous studies supported our finding that M98K allele frequences
are much higher in populations of Asian (555/2818, 19.7%) or African
(38/169, 22.5%) ancestries than in Caucasian (179/3149, 5.7%) or
Hispanic (2/61, 3.3%) populations (\tabref{8} and \tabref{9}). Thus,
ancestry would be a significant confounding variable when attempting to
analyze data pooled from different populations.}

\p{If we consider specific defined subpopulations, where there should be
less concern about ancestry serving as a confounding variable, then we
are left with concerns about differences observed not just between but
also within populations. When we compared the different Asian studies
using odds ratios (\figref{3}), the aggregate Asian data, the aggregate
Japanese data, the data produced by our study, and by the individual
studies of Umeda et al. [21], Fuse et al. [17], and Alward et al. [11],
we found each showed significant evidence of a difference between cases
and controls. When we evaluated allele frequencies for the various Asian
data sets, we saw dramatic differences in allele frequencies among the
different studies (\figref{3}, \tabref{8}). Also, the control values
showed much greater variation among studies than the case values. The
control values from some studies are higher than the case values from
other studies, even though within each separate study the case
frequencies are always higher than control frequencies (\figref{3}).
With regard to our study, in which a small number of samples came from
diverse Asian regions, the observed difference could be due to the
limited case sample size, differential representation of M98K within the
Asian population, case versus control status, or some combination of the
three.}

\p{The results of the Woolf test for heterogeneity indicated that there
was something noncomparable about the M98K findings from a number of the
studies that reported results for the same populations (\tabref{9}). In
the case of the Japanese data set, pooled data showed M98K frequencies
of 18.2% (220/1208) in cases versus 11.6% (77/661) in controls (p
value=0.0002), but results of the Woolf test led us to suspect that we
may be combining noncomparable data sets (p value=0.046). In the case of
the European data set, Fisher's exact test indicated that there was a
statistically significant difference between cases and controls (p
value=0.001), but again the Woolf test identified heterogeneity among
the data sets (p value=0.005; \tabref{9}). When we pooled the worldwide
data from the entire set of published studies, we saw a significant
difference between cases and controls (p value=0.00000004), but again,
testing for heterogeneity indicated that it may be invalid to pool these
studies (\tabref{9}; p value=0.0018). Interestingly, if we removed data
from the Rezaie study [9], which indicated Caucasian controls but did
not specify its case population composition, the remaining Caucasian
data sets appeared to be homogeneous (p value=0.512) and Fisher's exact
test indicated no significant difference between case and control values
(\tabref{9}; p value=0.072). Fewer studies distinguish observations for
NTG only. For those studies that provided data for NTG frequencies, we
saw that both the Japanese and European populations showed homogeneity
across studies. However, Fisher's exact testing of pooled studies showed
opposing results between Japanese (p value=0.00002) and European (p
value=0.58) populations.}

\p{The case versus control difference for the Hispanic data are also
intriguing, with M98K case values of 1/11 (9.1%) and control values of
1/50 (2.0%). Our small Hispanic data set was not well-powered for
statistical testing, but this represented an initial view of a
population under represented in previous studies (\tabref{8}). Given
that our Hispanic data set represented cross-continental cases from
North, Central, and South America, we have to wonder whether the
apparent differences in M98K allele frequences was simply due to small
sample size, or rather might be attributed to differential allele
frequencies correlated with geographic origins of samples rather than
case-control status.}

\discussion

\p{In our study of 314 individuals with OAG, we found 42 individuals
with sequence variants predicted to alter the protein coding sequence.
This included three \i{OPTN} variants previously reported to be
disease-causing variants-E50K, 691_692insAG, and R545Q, as well as the
M98K variant previously reported as a risk factor [9].}

\p{This is the second time the 691_692insAG mutation has been reported.
Both times it has been identified in case populations but not seen in
controls. It is the first report of 691_692insAG in an individual of
Russian Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, and ancestry is unavailable for the
previously reported case. Although \i{OPTN} defects were originally
reported in a population of primarily NTG cases, we found this variant
in an individual with modestly elevated IOP (22 mmHg). The shift in the
reading frame that it causes and the fact that it is seen among cases
but not controls suggests that it could be a causative variant. However,
if we combine data from all studies, we see it in 2/3677 cases (0.0005%)
in the studies that used protocols that would have detected it (all
studies in \tabref{8} except Aung [12], Melki [18], and Wiggs [23]).
Only a fraction of the 2,270 controls from those studies screened the
whole sequence from all controls, so they would not have been highly
likely to detect this variant among the controls even if the control
frequency were equal to the case frequency. Thus, while it is tempting
to say that a variant seen only in two cases might be causative, the
available numbers can only support the conclusion that 691_692insAG
event is a rare occurence.}

\p{We report here the first observation of the E50K change in a
Caucasian Hispanic individual. The observation of E50K at a frequency of
0.3% in our cases is consistent with reports of frequencies in OAG
populations of 0.1% by Alward et al. [11], 0.6% by Aung et al. [12], and
0.6% by Hauser et al. [36]. The NTG subset is reported to have E50K at a
higher prevalence of 13.5% (7/52),1.5% (2/132), 1.5% (1/67), and 2.9%
(1/34) in studies by Rezaie et al. [9], Aung et al. [12], Hauser et al.
[36], and ourselves, respectively. Many other studies found no evidence
of this mutation, including reports of its absence from 237 cases with
Chinese ancestry [14,35] and 961 cases with Japanese ancestry
[11,14,16,17,20,21,35,37], which supports the supposition that this is a
polymorphism private to the Caucasian and Hispanic populations.
Variation in frequencies observed among studies may be affected by the
ancestry of the population, the fraction of the cohort with familial
glaucoma, and differences in specific diagnoses included in the study.
Failure to see complete cosegregation of E50K with glaucoma (i.e., we
have one OAG case in a family lacking the E50K mutation) raises
questions about whether we are observing a phenocopy or whether E50K is
not the cause of the glaucoma in this family.}

\p{Our data and the compiled evidence from more than a dozen other
studies support the idea that R545Q may be a private polymorphism of
Asian populations. Although our Asian data set provides marginal
evidence for a difference in R545Q allele frequency between cases and
controls, it is a small population and the results are not statistically
significant. When we pooled our data with data from other studies there
did not appear to be any evidence to support a role for R545Q as a
disease causing variant.}

\p{We found the M98K variant in all four populations screened, but
evaluation of all of the published studies leaves unresolved the issue
of whether or not M98K is a risk factor for glaucoma. A similar
conclusion was drawn by Craig et al. [38] but they did not analyze the
population (ancestry) structure of the data for the allele. Several
studies find evidence for association, while others do not. Evaluation
of the published data in addition to our own indicates that there is
considerable variation in allele frequencies, not only among
populations, but also within populations. This variant is found in Asian
and African populations at more than twice the frequency seen in
Caucasian and Hispanic populations. Comparison of findings from
different studies indicates large variations in allele frequencies in
different study populations within Japanese (MH p value=0.00038) and
Chinese (MH p value=0.118) populations (\tabref{9}). The case-control
difference is much smaller within Caucasian or African populations
(\figref{3}), and data on Caucasian populations show less variation
between studies than the data on Japanese and Chinese populations
(\tabref{9}, \figref{3}).}

\p{There are a number of confounding factors that might contribute to
the observed variability of allele frequency between Asian populations.
Differential allele frequencies within a population could result from
founder effects. At this point, there is not enough information
available regarding origins of the different subpopulations
(\tabref{10}) to allow for evaluation of the likelihood of a founder
effect. There appears to be a correlation between total sample size and
the difference between case and control frequencies (\figref{2}),
although the published studies seem to be adequately powered (for
Fisher's exact test, the power, or probability to reject the null
hypothesis when it is true, is 0.76 for the parameters \pi\sub{1}=0.2,
\pi\sub{2}=0.1, where each sample size is 200 and \alpha=0.05). An
alternative confounding factor could be the result of the different
screening techniques applied (\tabref{10}); however, there is no obvious
correlation of high allele frequencies with one screening approach and
low allele frequencies with a different technique. Selective
under-representation of an allele in a data set relative to the actual
allele frequency could result if M98K were in linkage disequilibrium
with a neighboring polymorphism contained within the sequence of a
primer used in amplification or sequencing in some studies, but not
others. Some of the papers do not present the primer sequences and the
available primer sequence data do not provide support for this idea.
Additional contributions to variability between studies could include
differences in diagnostic inclusion and exclusion criteria and fraction
of familial glaucoma within each cohort. Thus, the extant data do not
allow us to distinguish between technical, ascertainment and demographic
models for the observed differences in M98K allele frequencies between
different studies of the same population.}

\p{An alternative approach to evaluation of whether the M98K allele is
involved in glaucoma is through the study of cosegregation in families.
Wiggs et al. [23] reported lack of cosegregation in families. An
accompanying population-based portion of that study [23] also failed to
find association of M98K with glaucoma in a population of mostly
European ancestry.}

\p{One alternative explanation for why some studies find association,
yet others do not, might be that there is a valid statistical difference
between the case and control populations but that the M98K allele is
actually associated with some other variable that differs between cases
and controls, or has been excluded from cases but not controls. An
obvious example of this would be IOP. The Rezaie et al. study [9] looked
at mostly NTG families, while there was a lot of variation in the extent
to which NTG was represented in the different populations in the other
studies. If M98K is actually responsible for reducing IOP, or for
preventing the rise of IOP, but is not actually causing glaucoma, then
we would expect exclusion of individuals with elevated IOP from the
cases would bias the M98K frequency in the cases as compared to the
controls even if M98K were not actually causing glaucoma. Melki et al.
[18] offered the view that M98K is associated with lower IOP. In our
data set we found that cases with the M98K mutation had known maximum
IOP values ranging from 16 mmHg to 55 mmHg (mean=29.6 mmHg) while those
who lacked the M98K mutation had maximum recorded IOP values ranging
from 14 mmHg in an NTG case up to 77 mmHg (mean=29.9 mmHg). Thus, in our
data set there was no obvious difference in maximum known IOP between
those with and those without M98K.}

\p{The original report by Rezaie provided apparently compelling
statistical evidence that M98K is a glaucoma risk factor with a p value
of 2.18x10\sup{-7}. The other studies that found any support for M98K
association with glaucoma found only weak evidence of this association.
It remains unclear what the differences are between the studies that
could account for the differences in study outcome. One key issue for
M98K appears to be the great variability of allele frequency reported in
different studies and different populations. This would be a problem if
the case population in the Rezaie et al. study [9] contained multiple
populations or an admixed population that self-identified as Caucasian.
In the Rezaie et al. study [9], both E50K, an apparently private
Caucasian polymorphism, and R545Q, an apparently private Asian
polymorphism, were in the same study cohort. While this could mean that
their undescribed case population was a mixed race group, it is also the
kind of thing that can happen in a fairly admixed urban population when
using self identification as the basis for applying racial/ethnic
classification, even when setting out to identify a relatively
homogeneous population. Thus, there is the possibility that the Rezaie
et al. study [9] outcome differs from the others because of differences
in diagnostic inclusion and exclusion criteria or other unidentified
factors, but it could also be the result of studying an allele that
varies significantly between and within populations - something that can
happen even when making efforts to carry out adequate matching of cases
and controls.}

\p{Thus the findings on M98K are currently contradictory, with some
studies finding association and other studies finding no support for
association, and with the differences in study outcome not assorting
according to population or technology used. Because there are such
substantial differences in allele frequencies between the different
studies and between and within populations, it is likely that a final
resolution of this question will require the following: The screening to
take place by technologies selected for precision rather than high
throughput; the study be adequately powered; matching of cases and
controls for ancestry be highly rigorous and matched for subpopulations
rather than simply matching for one of a handful of racial or ethnic
categories; inclusion and exclusion criteria be carefully defined, that
tests for association with associated variables such as IOP be carried
out in addition to tests for association with the primary glaucoma
status variable; and population substructure analysis be included in the
analysis to help deal with apparent differences within populations that
can be difficult to control.}

\p{This study has contibuted additional evidence of association of
\i{OPTN} E50K with glaucoma, and reported an additional instance of the
691_692insAG sequence variant. We have also provided new information on
\i{OPTN} in populations of African and Hispanic ancestry. Evaluation of
data from more than a dozen studies indicated no association of R545Q
with glaucoma in most populations. Combined analysis of more than a
dozen studies suggests that M98K is associated with NTG in Asian, but
not Caucasian study populations, but these results must be interpreted
with great caution because of the large differences in allele
frequencies between and within populations.}

\acknowledgements

\p{The authors thank Dr. Alfonzo Mendoza A. for his contributions to
this paper. Financial support came from NIH EY07003 (Core grant, Kellogg
Eye Center), NIH EY09580 (J.E.R.), and NIH EY11671 (J.E.R.) from the
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, a fellowship from the Pan
American Association of Ophthalmology, Arlington, TX, (R.A-L.), an
unrestricted grant from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., New York,
NY, to the Kellogg Eye Center, and by the Van Arnam Glaucoma Research
Fund of the University of Michigan Department of Ophthalmology and
Visual Sciences, Ann Arbor, MI. The authors have no financial or
proprietary conflicts relevant to the content of this paper.}

\references

\p{1. Quigley HA. Number of people with glaucoma worldwide. Br J
Ophthalmol 1996; 80:389-93. \pubmed{8695555}}

\p{2. Tielsch JM, Sommer A, Katz J, Royall RM, Quigley HA, Javitt J.
Racial variations in the prevalence of primary open-angle glaucoma. The
Baltimore Eye Survey. JAMA 1991; 266:369-74. \pubmed{2056646}}

\p{3. Libby RT, Gould DB, Anderson MG, John SW. Complex genetics of
glaucoma susceptibility. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 2005; 6:15-44.
\pubmed{16124852}}

\p{4. Sarfarazi M, Akarsu AN, Hossain A, Turacli ME, Aktan SG,
Barsoum-Homsy M, Chevrette L, Sayli BS. Assignment of a locus (GLC3A)
for primary congenital glaucoma (Buphthalmos) to 2p21 and evidence for
genetic heterogeneity. Genomics 1995; 30:171-7. \pubmed{8586416}}

\p{5. Akarsu AN, Turacli ME, Aktan SG, Barsoum-Homsy M, Chevrette L,
Sayli BS, Sarfarazi M. A second locus (GLC3B) for primary congenital
glaucoma (Buphthalmos) maps to the 1p36 region. Hum Mol Genet 1996;
5:1199-203. \pubmed{8842741}}

\p{6. Fingert JH, Heon E, Liebmann JM, Yamamoto T, Craig JE, Rait J,
Kawase K, Hoh ST, Buys YM, Dickinson J, Hockey RR, Williams-Lyn D, Trope
G, Kitazawa Y, Ritch R, Mackey DA, Alward WL, Sheffield VC, Stone EM.
Analysis of myocilin mutations in 1703 glaucoma patients from five
different populations. Hum Mol Genet 1999; 8:899-905. \pubmed{10196380}}

\p{7. Shimizu S, Lichter PR, Johnson AT, Zhou Z, Higashi M,
Gottfredsdottir M, Othman M, Moroi SE, Rozsa FW, Schertzer RM, Clarke
MS, Schwartz AL, Downs CA, Vollrath D, Richards JE. Age-dependent
prevalence of mutations at the GLC1A locus in primary open-angle
glaucoma. Am J Ophthalmol 2000; 130:165-77. \pubmed{11004290}}

\p{8. Monemi S, Spaeth G, DaSilva A, Popinchalk S, Ilitchev E, Liebmann
J, Ritch R, Heon E, Crick RP, Child A, Sarfarazi M. Identification of a
novel adult-onset primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) gene on 5q22.1. Hum
Mol Genet 2005; 14:725-33. \pubmed{15677485}}

\p{9. Rezaie T, Child A, Hitchings R, Brice G, Miller L, Coca-Prados M,
Heon E, Krupin T, Ritch R, Kreutzer D, Crick RP, Sarfarazi M.
Adult-onset primary open-angle glaucoma caused by mutations in
optineurin. Science 2002; 295:1077-9. \pubmed{11834836}}

\p{10. Sarfarazi M, Child A, Stoilova D, Brice G, Desai T, Trifan OC,
Poinoosawmy D, Crick RP. Localization of the fourth locus (GLC1E) for
adult-onset primary open-angle glaucoma to the 10p15-p14 region. Am J
Hum Genet 1998; 62:641-52. \pubmed{9497264}}

\p{11. Alward WL, Kwon YH, Kawase K, Craig JE, Hayreh SS, Johnson AT,
Khanna CL, Yamamoto T, Mackey DA, Roos BR, Affatigato LM, Sheffield VC,
Stone EM. Evaluation of optineurin sequence variations in 1,048 patients
with open-angle glaucoma. Am J Ophthalmol 2003; 136:904-10.
\pubmed{14597044}}

\p{12. Aung T, Ebenezer ND, Brice G, Child AH, Prescott Q, Lehmann OJ,
Hitchings RA, Bhattacharya SS. Prevalence of optineurin sequence
variants in adult primary open angle glaucoma: implications for
diagnostic testing. J Med Genet 2003; 40:e101. \pubmed{12920093}}

\p{13. Baird PN, Richardson AJ, Craig JE, Mackey DA, Rochtchina E,
Mitchell P. Analysis of optineurin (OPTN) gene mutations in subjects
with and without glaucoma: the Blue Mountains Eye Study. Clin Experiment
Ophthalmol 2004; 32:518-22. \pubmed{15498064}}

\p{14. Chen JH, Xu L, Li Y. [Study on the optic neuropathy induced
response protein gene mutation in Chinese patients with primary
open-angle glaucoma]. Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi 2004; 84:1098-102.
\pubmed{15312511}}

\p{15. Fan BJ, Wang DY, Fan DS, Tam PO, Lam DS, Tham CC, Lam CY, Lau TC,
Pang CP. SNPs and interaction analyses of myocilin, optineurin, and
apolipoprotein E in primary open angle glaucoma patients. Mol Vis 2005;
11:625-31 \mvref{11}{74}. \pubmed{16148883}}

\p{16. Funayama T, Ishikawa K, Ohtake Y, Tanino T, Kurosaka D, Kimura I,
Suzuki K, Ideta H, Nakamoto K, Yasuda N, Fujimaki T, Murakami A, Asaoka
R, Hotta Y, Tanihara H, Kanamoto T, Mishima H, Fukuchi T, Abe H, Iwata
T, Shimada N, Kudoh J, Shimizu N, Mashima Y. Variants in optineurin gene
and their association with tumor necrosis factor-alpha polymorphisms in
Japanese patients with glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2004;
45:4359-67. \pubmed{15557444}}

\p{17. Fuse N, Takahashi K, Akiyama H, Nakazawa T, Seimiya M, Kuwahara
S, Tamai M. Molecular genetic analysis of optineurin gene for primary
open-angle and normal tension glaucoma in the Japanese population. J
Glaucoma 2004; 13:299-303. \pubmed{15226658}}

\p{18. Melki R, Belmouden A, Akhayat O, Brezin A, Garchon HJ. The M98K
variant of the OPTINEURIN (OPTN) gene modifies initial intraocular
pressure in patients with primary open angle glaucoma. J Med Genet 2003;
40:842-4. \pubmed{14627677}}

\p{19. Mukhopadhyay A, Komatireddy S, Acharya M, Bhattacharjee A, Mandal
AK, Thakur SK, Chandrasekhar G, Banerjee A, Thomas R, Chakrabarti S, Ray
K. Evaluation of Optineurin as a candidate gene in Indian patients with
primary open angle glaucoma. Mol Vis 2005; 11:792-7 \mvref{11}{94}.
\pubmed{16205626}}

\p{20. Tang S, Toda Y, Kashiwagi K, Mabuchi F, Iijima H, Tsukahara S,
Yamagata Z. The association between Japanese primary open-angle glaucoma
and normal tension glaucoma patients and the optineurin gene. Hum Genet
2003; 113:276-9. \pubmed{12811537}}

\p{21. Umeda T, Matsuo T, Nagayama M, Tamura N, Tanabe Y, Ohtsuki H.
Clinical relevance of optineurin sequence alterations in Japanese
glaucoma patients. Ophthalmic Genet 2004; 25:91-9. \pubmed{15370540}}

\p{22. Weisschuh N, Neumann D, Wolf C, Wissinger B, Gramer E. Prevalence
of myocilin and optineurin sequence variants in German normal tension
glaucoma patients. Mol Vis 2005; 11:284-7 \mvref{11}{33}.
\pubmed{15851979}}

\p{23. Wiggs JL, Auguste J, Allingham RR, Flor JD, Pericak-Vance MA,
Rogers K, LaRocque KR, Graham FL, Broomer B, Del Bono E, Haines JL,
Hauser M. Lack of association of mutations in optineurin with disease in
patients with adult-onset primary open-angle glaucoma. Arch Ophthalmol
2003; 121:1181-3. \pubmed{12912697}}

\p{24. Willoughby CE, Chan LL, Herd S, Billingsley G, Noordeh N, Levin
AV, Buys Y, Trope G, Sarfarazi M, Heon E. Defining the pathogenicity of
optineurin in juvenile open-angle glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci
2004; 45:3122-30. \pubmed{15326130}}

\p{25. Agresti A. Categorical Data Analysis. 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ:
Wiley-Interscience, 2002. DOI: \hot{\doi}{10.1002/0471249688}}

\p{26. Lumley T. rmeta: Meta-analysis. R package version 2.12 ed, 2004.}

\p{27. Meyer D, Zeileis A, Hornik K. vcd: Visualizing Categorical Data.
R package version 0.9-7 ed, 2005.}

\p{28. R Development Core Team. R: A language and environment for
statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna,
Austria, 2005. \hot{\are}{http://cran.r-project.org/}}

\p{29. Schwarzer G. meta: Meta-Analysis. R package version 0.5 ed,
2005.}

\p{30. Hirsch MJ. The relationship between measles and myopia. Am J
Optom Arch Am Acad Optom 1957; 34:289-97. \pubmed{13435338}}

\p{31. Leguire LE, Fillman RD, Fishman DR, Bremer DL, Rogers GL. A
prospective study of ocular abnormalities in hearing impaired and deaf
students. Ear Nose Throat J 1992; 71:643-6,651. \pubmed{1483402}}

\p{32. Jansson M, Wadelius C, Rezaie T, Sarfarazi M. Analysis of rare
variants and common haplotypes in the optineurin gene in Swedish
glaucoma cases. Ophthalmic Genet 2005; 26:85-9. \pubmed{16020311}}

\p{33. Rakhmanov VV, Nikitina NIa, Zakharova FM, Astakhov IuS, Kvasova
MD, Vasil'ev VB, Golubkov VI, Mandel'shtam MIu. [Mutations and
polymorphisms in the genes for myocilin and optineur in as the risk
factors of primary open-angle glaucoma]. Genetika 2005; 41:1567-74.
\pubmed{16358725}}

\p{34. Forsman E, Lemmela S, Varilo T, Kristo P, Forsius H, Sankila EM,
Jarvela I. The role of TIGR and OPTN in Finnish glaucoma families: a
clinical and molecular genetic study. Mol Vis 2003; 9:217-22
\mvref{9}{32}. \pubmed{12789137}}

\p{35. Leung YF, Fan BJ, Lam DS, Lee WS, Tam PO, Chua JK, Tham CC, Lai
JS, Fan DS, Pang CP. Different optineurin mutation pattern in primary
open-angle glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2003; 44:3880-4.
\pubmed{12939304}}

\p{36. Hauser MA, Sena DF, Flor J, Walter J, Auguste J,
Larocque-Abramson K, Graham F, Delbono E, Haines JL, Pericak-Vance MA,
Rand Allingham R, Wiggs JL. Distribution of optineurin sequence
variations in an ethnically diverse population of low-tension glaucoma
patients from the United States. J Glaucoma 2006; 15:358-63.
\pubmed{16988596}}

\p{37. Toda Y, Tang S, Kashiwagi K, Mabuchi F, Iijima H, Tsukahara S,
Yamagata Z. Mutations in the optineurin gene in Japanese patients with
primary open-angle glaucoma and normal tension glaucoma. Am J Med Genet
A 2004; 125:1-4. \pubmed{14755458}}

\p{38. Craig JE, Hewitt AW, Dimasi DP, Howell N, Toomes C, Cohn AC,
Mackey DA. The role of the Met98Lys optineurin variant in inherited
optic nerve diseases. Br J Ophthalmol 2006; 90:1420-4.
\pubmed{16885188}}

\p{39. Sripriya S, Nirmaladevi J, George R, Hemamalini A, Baskaran M,
Prema R, Ve Ramesh S, Karthiyayini T, Amali J, Job S, Vijaya L,
Kumaramanickavel G. OPTN gene: profile of patients with glaucoma from
India. Mol Vis 2006; 12:816-20 \mvref{12}{92}. \pubmed{16885925}}

\p{40. Wang DY, Fan BJ, Canlas O, Tam PO, Ritch R, Lam DS, Fan DS, Pang
CP. Absence of myocilin and optineurin mutations in a large Philippine
family with juvenile onset primary open angle glaucoma. Mol Vis 2004;
10:851-6 \mvref{10}{102}. \pubmed{15547491}}

\endreferences

}

\beginfigures

\figfile{1}{
\figtitle{1}{Lack of complete cosegregation of E50K with
glaucoma in the pedigree of a Chilean family}

\p{The arrow indicates the proband (Case 1). Filled symbols are affected
individuals with NTG, open symbols are individuals who are unaffected or
reported to be unaffected. Symbols with a cross indicate individuals who
are glaucoma-suspect, symbols with a center dot indicate
glaucoma-affected individuals according to family report, and partially
filled symbols denote individuals affected with POAG. Diagonal lines
mark deceased individuals. Individuals denoted with ++ have E50 alleles
on both chromosomes and ones with M+ carry the E50K heterozygous change.
Members of generation four are young enough that they are not expected
to be affected yet.}

\ctr{\gifimage{1}{700}{238}{21}}

}

\figfile{2}{
\figtitle{2}{R545Q log odds ratios and allele frequences in Asian population studies}

\p{\panel{A} shows the odds ratios with 95% confidence interval bars for
individual Asian studies, and pooled results for Japan, China, and both
in open angle glaucoma (OAG) cases versus controls. Odds ratios and
confidence intervals are fixed effect estimates resulting from the
Mantel-Haenszel method. \panel{B} shows the case (OAG, filled circle)
and control (open circle) proportion observed for each study. Total
sample sizes are listed along the right-hand margin. None of the
differences between case and control frequencies are statistically
significant in a comparison of the odds ratios (as readily observed from
the odds ratio confidence intervals) and frequencies of R545Q mutations
in any of the Asian populations studied.}

\ctr{\gifimage{2}{700}{342}{35}}

}

\figfile{3}{
\figtitle{3}{Studywise differences appear in Japanese populations when odds ratios
and frequencies of M98K mutations are compared}

\p{The left-hand graph (\panel{A}) shows the odds ratios with 95%
confidence interval bars for individual Asian studies and pooled results
for Japan, China, and both in open angle glaucoma (OAG) cases versus
controls. Odds ratios and confidence intervals are fixed effect
estimates resulting from the Mantel-Haenszel method. The right-hand
graph (\panel{B}) shows the case (OAG, filled circle) and control (open
circle) proportions observed for each study. Total sample sizes are
listed along the right-hand margin. Larger samples have both narrower
confidence intervals and shorter distance between fractions observed for
cases and controls. Studies inconsistently estimate the odds of OAG
versus controls carrying an M98K mutation, with larger studies (more
than 400 total cases and controls) estimating no statistically
significant difference. Other population estimates are not shown,
because, among the European population-based studies, only Rezaie's
study [9] showed a statistically significant difference. The single
study on India yielded a significant odds ratio, but no other comparable
populations have been reported [19].}

\ctr{\gifimage{3}{700}{341}{34}}

}

\begintables

\tabfile{1}{
\tabtitle{1}{Ancestry and diagnosis of subjects}

\p{The frequency distribution of cases and controls according to
open-angle glaucoma (OAG) condition and ancestry (national) in our
analysis included 314 cases with juvenile onset OAG (JOAG), primary
open-angle glaucoma (POAG), and normal tension glaucoma (NTG).}

\box{\pre{
                                                                         Total
                    Population                       JOAG   POAG   NTG    OAG    Control   Total
--------------------------------------------------   ----   ----   ---   -----   -------   -----
   African
(U.S., Ghana, Nigeria, and the Caribbean)             14     63     4      81       88      169
   Asian
(Korea, China, and the Philippines)                    2      1     2       5      117      122
   Caucasian
(Europe and the Middle East)                          32    159    26     217      116      333
   Hispanic
(Mexico, Puerto Rico, Chile, Panama, and Colombia)     3      7     1      11       50       61

Totals                                                51    230    33     314      371      685
}}

}

\tabfile{2}{
\tabtitle{2}{Primers used for sequencing the \i{OPTN} gene}

\p{Primers used in amplification of \i{OPTN} exons were also used in
sequencing reactions. Primers located in introns were placed far enough
away from the exon boundaries to allow visualization of the sequence of
the splice sites. Exons 4 through 16 are the exons that contain coding
sequence.}

\box{\pre{
       Forward primer sequence   Reverse primer sequence
Exon           (5'-3')                   (5'-3')
----   -----------------------   -----------------------
  4    TGGAGAGAAAGTGGGCAACT      CACCAGCTACCACCTATGGA
  5    GGCATCTTTCAATTCAGAGCC     GACACGTAAGATTCCACTGC
  6    TCCCAGAGCTCTGCGATTAA      GCTACACTGGAATTTCCTCA
  7    TCTGAGCCACCCCGTTTAAA      GACCTCCGGTGACAAG
  8    GGAGAATGTTCTGGAAAGCAG     GGGTGAACTGTATGGTATCT
  9    CCCCTGATCCTTTATCCCAA      AATTCAGTGGCTGGACTAC
 10    TGGTTCAGCCTGTTTTCTCC      CCCCCCATCTTACAAGTATTTC
 11    TGGCCAGGTCTAGTGAAGAA      TTTATCCCCCTCTCTGAGAG
 12    GAAATGCTAGTAGGTCGTGG      CCCTGACCATAGGACATTCA
 13    CCGGCCAGAGCTGATAAT        AGATCCACTGAGCACTTTCC
 14    CTAGCAGGATTGTGCATCGT      GTGGCGCGAACACAGCTATT
 15    TTTCCCCTACTTCTGTGGAC      GAGACTGACGGGTGCTATAT
 16    TCATGTCCCACTACGTGTTG      TGTGCCCGGCCTGTTTTCTT
}}

}

\tabfile{3}{
\tabtitle{3}{Primers used for sequencing the \i{MYOC} gene}

\p{Primers used in amplification of \i{MYOC} exons were also used in
sequencing reactions. Primers located in introns were placed far enough
away from the exon boundaries to allow visualization of the sequence of
the splice sites. Primer pairs 1A, 2, and 3A were used for PCR
amplification and sequencing of exons 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Primers
1B and 3B are internal primers that were used for sequencing purposes
only.}

\box{\pre{
        Forward primer sequence     Reverse primer sequence
Exon            (5'-3')                     (5'-3')
----   -------------------------   -------------------------
 1A    GGCTGGCTCCCCAGTATATA        CTGCTGAACTCAGAGTCCCC
 1B    AGGCCAATGTCAAGTCATCCAT      CTCCAGAACTGACTTGTCTC
  2    ACATAGTCAATCCTTGGGCC        TAAAGACCACGTGGCACA
 3A    CTGGCTCTGCCAAGCTTCCGCATGA   GGCTGGCTCTCCCTTCAGCCTGCT
 3B    GAGCTGAATACCGAGACAGTGAA     GAGGCCTGCTTCATCCACAGCCAAC
}}

}

\tabfile{4}{
\tabtitle{4}{Frequency of sequence variants that alter the \i{OPTN} protein
sequence}

\p{All case samples were screened and scored for each mutation listed.
Absence of a listing for one of the four control groups does not imply
that it was screened. Data for M98K appear in \tabref{5}.}

\box{\pre{
Protein change    DNA change    Exon   Ancestry    Cases   Controls
--------------   ------------   ----   ---------   -----   --------
E50K             c.458 G\gt A        4    Hispanic    1/11     0/50
I88V             c.572 A\gt G        5    Caucasian   0/217    1/116
A99S             c.605 G\gt T        5    African     0/81     2/88
E322K            c.1274 G\gt A      10    African     1/81     6/88
E322K            c.1274 G\gt A      10    Caucasian   1/217    0/90
691Frameshift    691_692insAG     6    Caucasian   1/217    0/116
R545Q            c.1944 G\gt A      16    Asian       2/5      11/117
}}

}

\tabfile{5}{
\tabtitle{5}{Frequency of M98K in four populations within our cohort}

\p{The total enumeration of both cases and controls is listed in the
whole population column. Cases are subdivided according to OAG type,
either JOAG, POAG, or NTG. A two-sided Fisher's exact test p value
indicated no statistical significance for association between cases and
controls in each ancestry category. Woolf's test for homogeneity among
the ancestry frequencies yielded a p value of 0.312, indicating that the
ancestral subdivisions are statistically similar.}

\box{\pre{
                                                                    Fisher's
                                                                     exact
              Whole                             Total                 test
Ancestry    population   JOAG    POAG    NTG     OAG     Controls   p value
---------   ----------   ----   ------   ----   ------   --------   --------

Frequency of mutation in screened samples by population

African       38/169     3/14   14/63    1/4     18/81    20/88      1.0
Asian         32/122     1/2     1/1     1/2      3/5     29/117     0.112
Hispanic       2/62      0/3     1/7     0/1      1/11     1/50      0.331
Caucasian     22/336     3/32   11/159   0/26   14/217     8/116     1.0

Total         94/690     7/51   27/230   2/33   36/314    58/371

Percent of mutation in screened samples by population

African        22.5      21.4    22.2    25.0    22.2      22.7
Asian          26.2      50.0   100.0    50.0    60.0      24.8
Hispanic        3.2       0.0    14.3     0.0     9.1       2.0
Caucasian       6.5       9.4     6.9     0.0     6.5       6.9

Total           3.6       3.7     1.7     6.1     1.5       5.6
}}

}

\tabfile{6}{
\tabtitle{6}{Comparison of R545Q frequency in different populations}

\p{The asterisks denote a calculation based on adding 0.5 to each cell
in cases with a zero cell frequency, otherwise the value is nonexistent.
Lower and upper bounds refer to the individual study 95% confidence
interval around the odds ratio for a fixed effects Mantel-Haenszel
model. Information from Leung et al. [35] were omitted because it
duplicated that contained in Fan et al. [15]. Data from Toda et al. [37]
were omitted because it duplicated information contained in Tang et al.
[20]. In the Europe category, only the data regarding Caucasians (Iowa
and Australia) in Alward et al. [11] were enumerated, while the reported
cases with pigmentary, developmental, and exfoliative data were
omitted.}

\box{\pre{
                                                                                            Fisher's
                    OAG          Controls          Percent                 95% CI bounds     exact
               -------------   -------------   ---------------    Odds    ---------------    test
   Source      R545Q   Total   R545Q   Total   OAG    Controls   ratio    Lower    Upper    p value
------------   -----   -----   -----   -----   ----   --------   ------   -----   -------   --------

China

[14]             5      118      5      150     4.2     3.3       1.28    0.36      4.54     0.753
[15]            27      400     19      262     6.8     7.3       0.92    0.50      1.70     0.876

Japan

[11]            12      247      3       89     4.9     3.4       1.46    0.40      5.31     0.767
[16]            26      411     11      218     6.3     5.0       1.27    0.62      2.62     0.596
[17]             1      154      0      100     0.6     0.0       1.96*   0.08*    48.69*    1.000
[20]            20      313     10      196     6.4     5.1       1.27    0.58      2.77     0.700
[21]             3       83      4       58     3.6     6.9       0.51    0.11      2.35     0.446

Asia

[This study]     2        6     11      117    33.3     9.4       4.82    0.79     29.36    0.122

Europe

[This study]     0      217      -       -      0.0      -         -        -        -        -
[11]             0      650      0      162     0.0     0.0        -        -        -        -
[13]             0       27      0       94     0.0     0.0        -        -        -        -
[9]              1       46      0      100     2.2     0.0       6.63*   0.26*   165.80*   0.315
[22]             0      112      -       -      0.0      -         -        -        -        -

Africa

[This study]     0       81      0       90     0.0     0.0        -        -        -        -

India

[19]             6      200      0      200     3.0     0.0      13.40*   0.75*   239.49*   0.030

Mixed

[23]             0       86      0       80     0.0     0.0        -        -        -        -
[24]             1      114      3      187     0.9     1.6       0.54    0.06      5.28    1.000
}}

}

\tabfile{7}{
\tabtitle{7}{Aggregate statistical summaries in Asian populations screened for R545Q}

\p{Results from computing the upper and lower 95% confidence interval
bounds around the odds ratio indicate that none of the Asian divisions
are statistically different from an odds ratio of 1. The Woolf test for
homogeneity indicates that across studies within each ancestry group the
odds ratios are statistically equivalent (i.e., homogeneous, because a p
value less than 0.05 would indicate heterogeneity [25]). A two-sided
Fisher's exact test on the pooled frequencies was computed for those
instances when the Woolf test indicated homogeneity at the 0.05 level.
The ancestry groups are collated for China from Chen et al. [14] and Fan
et al. [15]; and for Japan from Alward et al. [11], Funayama et al.
[16], Fuse et al. [17], Tang et al. [20], and Umeda et al. [21]. The
Asia listing includes data pooled from the China and Japan categories.
Only Fan et al. [15] report on NTG for China.}

\box{\pre{
                                                                                              Fisher's
                Cases         Controls         Percent              95% CI bounds    Woolf     exact
            -------------   -------------   -------------   Odds    -------------    test       test
Ancestry    R545Q   Total   R545Q   Total   OAG   Control   ratio   Lower   Upper   p value   p value
---------   -----   -----   -----   -----   ---   -------   -----   -----   -----   -------   --------
China       32      518     24      412     6.2   5.8       0.98    0.57    1.70    0.648     0.89
Japan       62      1208    28      661     5.1   4.2       1.20    0.76    1.90    0.838     0.43

Asia        94      1726    52      1073    5.4   4.8       1.12    0.78    1.58    0.925     0.541

China-NTG   7       106     5       150     6.6   3.3       2.04    0.54    8.41    -         0.244
Japan-NTG   40      705     28      661     5.7   4.2       1.40    0.84    2.33    0.848     0.263
}}

}

\tabfile{8}{
\tabtitle{8}{Frequency of M98K in individuals from different populations}

\p{Under the fixed effects Mantel-Haenszel model, individual study 95%
confidence interval bounds around the odds ratio are given. For
compatibility with much of the published literature the two-sided
Fisher's exact test p values are given for each study. Although the
presence of M98K mutations in OAG cases appears to be statistically
significant relative to controls, Alward et al. [11] reported that when
multi-testing is taken into account their result becomes nonsignificant.
Information from Leung et al. [35] was omitted because it duplicated the
information contained in Fan et al. [15]. Data from Toda et al. [37]
were omitted because they duplicated the observations contained in Tang
et al. [20]. Pigmentary and exfoliative data were omitted from the
Europe (Caucasians living in Iowa and Australia) samples reported by
Alward et al. [11]. Rezaie et al. [9] reported a p value=2.18\sup{-7}.}

\box{\pre{
                                                                                      Fisher's
                  Cases         Controls        Percent               95% CI bounds    exact
               ------------   ------------   --------------   Odds    -------------     test
   Source      M98K   Total   M98K   Total   OAG    Control   ratio   Lower   Upper   p value
------------   ----   -----   ----   -----   ----   -------   -----   -----   -----   --------
China

[14]            26     118     22     150    22.0    14.7     1.64    0.88     3.08    0.148
[15]           129     400     81     281    32.3    28.8     1.18    0.84     1.64    0.355

Japan

[11]            51     247      8      89    20.6     9.0     2.63    1.20     5.80    0.014
[16]            81     411     36     218    19.7    16.5     1.24    0.81     1.91    0.389
[17]            25     154      5     100    16.2     5.0     3.68    1.36     9.97    0.009
[20]            51     313     27     196    16.3    13.8     1.22    0.74     2.02    0.527
[21]            12      83      1      58    14.5     1.7     9.63    1.22    76.31    0.149

Asia

[This study]     3       5     29     117    60.0    24.8     4.55    0.72    28.60    0.112

Europe

[This study]    13     217      8     116     6.0     6.9     0.86    0.34     2.14    0.814
[11]            46     650     10     162     7.1     6.2     1.16    0.57     2.35    1.000
[12]            22     315      3      95     7.0     3.2     2.30    0.67     7.87    0.224
[13]             2      27      3      94     7.4     3.2     2.43    0.38    15.33    0.310
[32]             9     200     10     200     4.5     5.0     0.90    0.36     2.25    1.000
[18]            11     237      5     110     4.6     4.5     1.02    0.35     3.02    1.000
[33]            11     170      1     100     6.5     1.0     6.85    0.87    53.87    0.036
[9]             23     169      9     422    13.6     2.1     7.23    3.27    15.98    0.000
[22]             7     105      7      93     6.7     7.5     0.88    0.3      2.6     1.000

Hispanic

[This study]     1      11      1      50     9.1     2.0     4.90    0.28    85.05    0.331

Africa

[This study]    18      81     20      88    22.2    22.7     0.97    0.47     2.00    1.000

India

[19]            22     200     11     200    11.0     5.5     2.12    1.00     4.51    0.068
[39]            10     220      0     100     4.5     0        inf    1.04     inf     0.034

Mixed

[38]            28     498     17     218     5.6     7.8     0.70    0.38     1.32    0.315
[36]            14     153      9     100     9.2     9.0     1.02    0.42     2.45    1.000
[23]             8      86      8      80     9.3    10.0     0.92    0.33     2.59    1.000
[24]            12     115      4     101    10.4     4.0     2.83    0.88     9.06    0.116
}}

}

\tabfile{9}{
\tabtitle{9}{Aggregate statistical summaries for populations screened for M98K}

\p{The ancestry groups are collated for China: Chen et al. [14] and Fan
et al. [15]; Japan: Alward et al. [11], Funayama et al. [16], Fuse et
al. [17], Tang et al. [20], and Umeda et al. [21]; Europe: Alward et al.
[11], Aung et al. [12], Baird et al. [13], Jansson et al. [32], Melki et
al. [18], Rakhmanov et al. [33], Rezaie et al. [9], and Weisschuh et al.
[22]. Asia is the pooling of the China and Japan categories. The total
combines all published studies from the lines above with the addition of
Craig et al. [38], Hauser et al. [36], Mukhopadhyay et al. [19],
Sripriya et al. [39], Wiggs et al. [23], and Willoughby et al. [24]. The
Europe-NTG group consists of the data from Alward et al. [11], Aung et
al. [12], Baird et al. [13], Rakhmanov et al. [33], and Weisschuh et al.
[22]. Results from computing the upper and lower 95% confidence interval
bounds around the odds ratio indicate that some studies are
statistically different than an odds ratio of 1. The Woolf test for
homogeneity indicated that across studies within each ancestry group
which of the odds ratios were statistically equivalent (i.e.,
heterogeneity is indicated by a p value less than 0.05 [25]). A
two-sided Fisher's exact test on the pooled frequencies is given for
those instances when the Woolf test indicated homogeneity at the 0.05
level. When Rezaie et al. [9] data are excluded the Europe group, then
the odds ratio becomes 1.33 with a 95% confidence interval of (0.90,
1.98), Woolf p value of 0.512, and a Fisher's exact test p value of
0.072.}

\box{\pre{
                                                                                                  Fisher's
                 OAG          Controls         Percent                 95% CI bounds     Woolf     exact
             ------------   -------------  ---------------    Odds    ---------------    test       test
 Ancestry    M98K   Total   M98K   Total   OAG    Controls   ratio    Lower    Upper    p value   p value
----------   ----   -----   ----   -----   ----   --------   ------   -----   -------   -------   --------

China        155     518    103     431    29.9     23.9      1.26    0.94     1.70      0.354     0.04
Japan        220    1208     77     661    18.2     11.6      1.65    1.25     2.19      0.046       -
Asia         375    1726    180    1092    21.7     16.5      1.46    1.19     1.79      0.075     0.0006
Europe       131    1873     48    1276     7.0      3.8      1.87    1.31     2.66      0.005       -

Total        600    4871    277    3167    12.3      8.7      1.51    1.29     1.77      0.002       -

Japan-NTG    142     705     77     661    20.1     11.6      1.91    1.40     2.62      0.240      2E-5
Europe-NTG    28     371     24     544     7.5      4.4      1.77    0.97     3.24      0.149     0.58
Total-NTG    170    1076    101    1205    15.8      8.4      1.75    1.33     2.31      0.177      6E-8
}}

}

\tabfile{10}{
\tabtitle{10}{M98K population data sources and screening methods ordered by ancestry}

\p{The following methodologies were used to screen samples for variants.
We omitted two studies: Wang et al. [40], a Filipino population, and
Forsman et al. [34], a population from south Finland, because they are
small family-based studies without population data. SSCP: single-strand
conformation polymorphism. DHPLC: denaturing high-performance liquid
chromatography. HTCSGE: High throughput conformation sensitive gel
electrophoresis. RFLP: Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms.}

\box{\pre{
                   Recruitment
                    locations
   Source          (population)          Methodology                   Notes
------------   --------------------   ------------------   ------------------------------
   China

[14]           China-Beijing          SSCP-\gt sequencing
[15]           China-Hong Kong        PCR and
                                      HTCSGE-\gt sequencing
   Japan

[11]           Japan-Gifu             SSCP-\gt sequencing
[16]           Japan-Tokyo,           PCR-RFLP
               Kumamoto, Hamamatsu,
               Hiroshima, Niigata
[17]           Japan-Miyagi           PCR-\gt sequencing
[20]           Japan-Yamanashi        SSCP-\gt sequencing
[21]           Japan-Okayama City     sequencing

   Asia (other than China and Japan)

[This study]   USA-Michigan           PCR-\gt sequencing
               (Korean, Chinese,
               Filipino)
   Europe

[This study]   USA-Michigan           PCR-\gt sequencing      Caucasian
[11]           Australia-Melbourne,   SSCP-\gt sequencing     Australian samples
               Adelaide, USA-Iowa                          areCaucasian (D. Mackey,
                                                           personal report), Iowa
                                                           population \gt 91% Caucasian
                                                           according to the State Data
                                                           Center of Iowa
[12]           England-London         PCR-RFLP             Caucasian
[13]           Australia-New South    PCR-RFLP             mostly Caucasian
               Wales
[32]           Sweden-Uppsala and     DHPLC, PCR,
               Tierps                 SNaPshot
[18]           France-Paris           PCR-RFLP             French and Moroccan Caucasians
[33]           Russia-St.             SSCP, PCR
               Petersburg
[9]            USA-Chicago,           PCR-\gt sequencing      Unspecified cases with
               Connecticut, New       and                  Caucasian controls
               Haven,UK-London,       SSCP-\gt sequencing
               Canada-Toronto
[22]           Germany-Tuebingen,     PCR-RFLP, DHPLC
               Wuerzburg
   Hispanic

[This study]   USA-Michigan,          PCR-\gt sequencing
               Florida, Mexico,
               Panama, Peru, Chile,
               Paraguay
   Africa

[This study]   USA-Michigan, Ghana-   PCR-\gt sequencing      African American and African
               Accra, Sunyani
   India

[19]           India-Hyperabad,       SSCP-\gt sequencing,
               Kolkata                DHPLC, PCR--RFLP
[39]           India-Chennai          PCR-\gt sequencing,
                                      RFLP
   Mixed

[38]           Australia/Tasmania     PCR-RFLP
[36]           USA-New England area   PCR-\gt sequencing,     about 90% Caucasian
                                      DHPLC
[23]           USA-Massachusetts,     PCR-\gt sequencing      about 90% Caucasian
               North Carolina
[24]           Canada-Toronto         PCR-RFLP
}}

}
