Exploring Genetic Factors Involved in the Risk of Bruxism in Male Construction Workers

Abstract

ABSTRACTObjective The bruxism has a multifactorial etiology, in which molecular factors and genes play an important role. Dopaminergic pathways are pathways involved in functions such as motor control, reward, motivation, arousal and cognition. Genetic polymorphisms in the genes encoding Dopamine Receptor D2 (DRD2) and Ankyrin Repeat and Kinase Domain Containing 1 (ANKK1) have been reported in the literature associated with sleep disorders, migraine, personality, acute and chronic pain.Methods The present study aimed to assess whether genetic polymorphisms in DRD2 (rs6275 and rs6276) and ANKK1 (rs1800497) are associated with bruxism in construction men workers. A total of 113 male patients were evaluated. Bruxism was determined using a questionnaire, in which the patient self-reported the presence or absence of bruxism. For genetic analysis, saliva was collected from all individuals and the extraction of genomic DNA was performed to investigate the genetic polymorphisms rs6275 (C/T), rs6276 (A/G) and rs1800497 (C/T). The statistical significance was determined adopting an alpha = 0.05.Results Twenty-three (20.35%) patients reported at least one symptom of bruxism. Clenching was reported by 15.93% of the patients and grinding was reported by 14.16% of the patients. There was no statistical significance association between the studied genetic polymorphisms and bruxism (p > .05).Conclusions Our study did not observe an association between the genetic polymorphisms in DRD2 and ANKK1 and bruxism in a group of male construction workers.

Keywords

• Bruxism
• ankyrin repeat
• men
• dopamine