ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To find out the relationship between mutation of ATP7B gene promoter region and pathogenesis of Wilson disease(WD).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Two of 48 WD patients presented C-->T base substitution mutations at the position -183. DNA sequences of the promoter region from normal and mutant samples were separated. The fragments containing the promoter region were cloned upstream of the luciferase. Luciferase activity was analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The luciferase activity of reporter gene containing normal sequence of ATP7B gene promoter region did not show significant difference as compared with that of reporter gene containing mutant promoter(n=3, P > 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>No influence of C-->T base substitution mutations on the activity of promoter was observed in study. The results suggest that WD pathogenesis relates little to the mutations of the promoter region in Chinese.</p>