RESEARCH ARTICLE
Investigation Between the S377G3 GATA-4 Polymorphism and Migraine
Chikhani Sherin§, 1, Fernandez Francesca§, 1, Poetter Karl2, Toohey Brendan2, Harvey Ron3, Griffiths Lyn*, 1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 35
Last Page: 38
Publisher ID: TONEUJ-2-35
DOI: 10.2174/1874205X00802010035
Article History:
Received Date: 24/3/2008Revision Received Date: 9/4/2008
Acceptance Date: 11/6/2008
Electronic publication date: 25/7/2008
Collection year: 2008

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/), which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Migraine is a common and painful neurological disorder, with genetic and environmental components. Several conditions have been shown to be comorbid with migraine, notably a cardiac malformation affecting the interatrial septum and leading to patent foramen ovale (PFO). Mutations in the development regulatory gene GATA-4, located on human chromosome 8p23.1-p22, have been found to be responsible for some cases of congenital heart defects including PFO. To determine whether the GATA-4 gene is involved in migraine, the present study performed an association analysis of a common GATA-4 variant that results in a change of amino acid (S377G), in a large case/control population (275 unrelated Caucasian migraineurs versus 275 control individuals). The results showed that there was no significant association for this polymorphism between migraine and controls (χ² = 0.84, P = 0.66). Thus it appears that the GATA-4 (S377G) mutation does not play a significant role in common migraine susceptibility.