Introduction: Gasdermin A (GSDMA) and gasdermin B (GSDMB) have been associated with childhood, and to a lesser extent with adult, asthma in many populations.
Aims: In this study, we investigated the association between GSDMA and GSDMB variants and the incidence of adult and childhood asthma among Jordanians.
Methods: Subjects were divided into two groups: adults and children. Within the adult group there were 129 asthma patients and 111 healthy controls. In the pediatric group there were 98 asthma patients and 112 healthy children. Gasdermin A (GSDMA) (rs7212938, T/G) and Gasdermin B (rs7216389, T/C) polymorphisms were genotyped using the PCR-RFLP method. Three analysis models were applied to the genotype data: co-dominant, dominant and recessive.
Results: An association between the GSDMB T/C single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotype and the incidence of childhood asthma was found (< 0.05). GSDMB T/C SNP in children also showed a very high tendency toward significance with p = 0.0532 in the single locus analysis. In adults, no significant differences in the allelic frequencies of any of the SNPs analyzed were found between the case and control populations. At the haplotype level, GC haplotype was found to be associated with the risk of asthma in children while none of the tested haplotypes were found to be associated with asthma risk in adults.
Conclusions: The findings of this study confirm the previously reported association between the GSDMB gene and the risk of childhood asthma.