Certain genetic polymorphisms have been suggested to be associated with cerebral palsy; the candidate genes are involved in thrombophilia, inflammation and preterm labor, but the mechanism remains to be elucidated. The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between selected single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and cerebral palsy among children. A case-control study was conducted, including 74 infants with cerebral palsy (case group) and 99 healthy infants (control group). The distributions of the allele and genotype frequencies were examined for the total cerebral palsy patient population in addition to subgroups divided according to gestational age (preterm versus full-term). The results showed that the rs1042714 variant in adrenergic receptor β-2 (ADRB2) and heterozygosity for ADRB2 were associated with the cerebral palsy risk among the preterm infants. No significant differences in the allele or genotype frequencies were observed between the total cerebral palsy patient population and controls for the eight SNPs investigated.
Keywords: candidate gene; case-control; cerebral palsy; single-nucleotide polymorphism association.