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Background and Purpose: Formation of kidney stones is still not understood but is hypothesized to be associated with the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR). In order to assess the eventual role of VDR start-codon FokI polymorphism in stone formation, we evaluated the association between calcium stone disease and this polymorphism in a North Indian population.

Patients and Methods: A control group comprised of 166 healthy individuals (age range 22–58 years) and a group of 138 patients with calcium oxalate stones (age range 21–72 years) were examined. The polymorphism was detected using polymerase chain reaction-based restriction analysis. An unexcisable length of 265 bp (CC) and two fragments of 169 bp and 96 bp (TT) were obtained by FokI restriction digestion.

Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the control and patient groups (X ² test, P < 0.001) for the genotype of the VDR FokI start-codon polymorphism. The odds ratio (with 95% CI) for the C allele in those at risk of stone disease was 1.654 (1.041, 2.628). The VDR frequency distribution was also statistically significant (P < 0.001) in case of male sex. The frequency distribution for this genetic polymorphism was not statistically different in normocalciuric and hypercalciuric stone patients (P = 0.355).

Conclusion: The VDR FokI polymorphism may be a good candidate for a marker for calcium oxalate-stone disease. These findings may contribute a small piece to the understanding of the pathogenesis of urinary calculi.