Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

New sequence variants associated with bone mineral density

Abstract

In an extended genome-wide association study of bone mineral density among 6,865 Icelanders and a follow-up in 8,510 subjects of European descent, we identified four new genome-wide significant loci. These are near the SOST gene at 17q21, the MARK3 gene at 14q32, the SP7 gene at 12q13 and the TNFRSF11A (RANK) gene at 18q21. Furthermore, nonsynonymous SNPs in the C17orf53, LRP4, ADAM19 and IBSP genes were suggestively associated with bone density.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The associated region on 17q21.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Johnell, O. et al. J. Bone Miner. Res. 20, 1185–1194 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Kanis, J. et al. Osteoporos. Int. 18, 1033 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Kanis, J.A. et al. Bone 42, 467–475 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Peacock, M., Turner, C.H., Econs, M.J. & Foroud, T. Endocr. Rev. 23, 303–326 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Styrkarsdottir, U. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 358, 2355–2365 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Richards, J.B. et al. Lancet 371, 1505–1512 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Mizuguchi, T. et al. J. Hum. Genet. 49, 80–86 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. van Meurs, J.B. et al. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 299, 1277–1290 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Uitterlinden, A.G. et al. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 75, 1032 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Sims, A.-M. et al. J. Bone Miner. Res. 23, 499–506 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Brunkow, M.E. et al. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 68, 577–589 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Balemans, W. et al. Hum. Mol. Genet. 10, 537–543 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Balemans, W. et al. J. Med. Genet. 39, 91–97 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Sigurdsson, G., Halldorsson, B.V., Styrkarsdottir, U., Kristjansson, K. & Stefansson, K. J. Bone Miner. Res. 23, 1584–1590 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Frazer, K.A. et al. Nature 449, 851–861 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the subjects of the Icelandic deCODE study, the Danish Prospective Epidemiological Risk Factor (PERF) study and the Australian Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study (DOES) cohort for their valuable participation. We also thank the staff of the deCODE core facilities and recruitment center for their important contributions to this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

U.S., B.V.H., S.G., J.R.G., A.K., U.T. and K.S. designed the study; U.S., S.G., G.B.W., T.I., T.J., J.S., S.S., J.R.C., T.V.N., P.A., J.A.E., C.C. and G.S. collected the data; U.S., B.V.H., D.F.G. and A.K. analyzed the data; U.S., B.V.H., S.G., A.K., U.T. and K.S. wrote the first draft of the paper. All authors contributed to the final version of the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Unnur Styrkarsdottir or Kari Stefansson.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors U.S., B.V.H., S.G., D.F.G., G.B.W., T.J., J.S., S.S., J.R.G., A.K., U.T. and K.S. are employed by deCODE Genetics and own stock or stock options in the company. J.A.E. reports having received consulting fees, lecture fees or advisory fees from Amgen, deCODE Genetics, Eli-Lilly, GE-Lunar, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Organon, Roche-GSK, Sanofi-Aventis, Servier and Wyeth Australia. No other potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Tables 1–6 and Supplementary Figure 1 (PDF 777 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Styrkarsdottir, U., Halldorsson, B., Gretarsdottir, S. et al. New sequence variants associated with bone mineral density. Nat Genet 41, 15–17 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.284

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.284

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing