We and others previously reported that pulmonary function measured by the ratio of measured to predicted forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) - percent predicted FEV1(ppFEV1), which is used to diagnose chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, is highly heritable. To identify specific genetic factors influencing on ppFEV1, we conducted a prospective meta-analysis on the results of four independent genome-wide association studies in healthy Caucasian non-smoker population. We identified two chromosomal regions - 2p25.3 and 8q12.3 are interesting and may play a role in pulmonary function. we therefore selected two SNPs (rs4971396 which is located in SNTG2 on chr2 and rs7017559 which is located on chr8) within these two regions which were associated with ppFEV1 and would like to replicate the association in the ALSPAC.

Method and subjects: all the participants who are non-smokers from the ALSPAC will be inlcuded. the data of their spirometer measurementsas well as their age, height, and weight will be retrived from the existing data. predicted FEV1 will be calculated using the prediction equation derived from the US sample and the percent predicted FEV1 will then be calculated and used in the analysis. the DNA samples will be retrived and sent to the in-house laboratory to genotype for the above two SNPs.