The 12/15-lipoxygenase gene Alox15 has been identified as a susceptibility gene for bone mineral density (BMD) in mice through combined genetic and genomic analyses. Here we studied the association between bone mineral density and an ALOX15 gene single nucleotide polymorphism to assess the potential involvement of the human ALOX15 gene in postmenopausal osteoporosis. Specifically, we examined the association between a single nucleotide polymorphism at -5299G/A in the ALOX15 5'-flanking region with BMD in 319 postmenopausal Japanese women (66.7 +/- 8.9 years, mean +/- SD). We found that subjects bearing at least one variant A allele (GA + AA; n = 273) had significantly lower Z scores for lumbar spine and total body bone mineral density than did subjects with no A allele (GG; n = 46) (lumbar spine, -0.25 +/- 1.34 versus 0.48 +/- 1.70; P = 0.0014; total body, 0.25 +/- 1.01 vs 0.62 +/- 1.11; P = 0.048). These findings suggest that the ALOX15 gene is one of the genetic determinants of BMD in postmenopausal women. Accordingly, this polymorphism could be useful as a genetic marker for predicting the risk of osteoporosis.