CUERNAVACA, Mexico, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. and Mexican scientists say they've identified genetic variants on a specific chromosome that are associated with childhood asthma occurring in Mexicans.
The scientists from the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health, the Mexican National Institute of Public Health and their U.S. and U.K. colleagues found genetic variants in a region on chromosome 9q might influence asthma development in Mexican children.
The scientists conducted a genome-wide association study, in which they looked at more than 500,000 variants across the genome in 492 Mexican children with asthma and their parents to identify novel genes that might influence asthma development.
The researchers said they also examined ancestry in that Mexican population and found the same chromosome may underlie some of the differences in childhood asthma prevalence that have been observed across ethnic groups. It remains unclear why Mexicans have lower rates of asthma than some other groups, they added.
The researchers report their study in the Aug. 28 issue of the journal PLoS Genetics.
