OBJECTIVETo explore possible genes related to the development of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN).METHODSThe authors identified 285 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 11 candidate genes (BMPR2, EPAS1, PDE3A, VEGFA, ENG, NOTCH3, SOD3, CPS1, ABCA3, ACVRL1, and SMAD9), using an Illumina Asian Screening Array-24 v1.0 BeadChip Array. The FastLmmC and R package was used for statistical analyses. The chi-square test and Cochrane-Armitage trend test were used to compare the allele and genotype frequencies between the groups and to test the genetic models, respectively.RESULTSA total of 45 PPHN infants and 294 control subjects were analyzed. The most common cause of PPHN was meconium aspiration syndrome. Among the 285 SNPs, 17 SNPs from 6 candidate genes (BMPR2, EPAS1, PDE3A, VEGFA, ENG, and NOTCH3) were significantly associated with PPHN (P < 0.05). After using the Bonferroni correction (P < 0.00018), only the rs17034984 SNP located in intron 1 of the EPAS1 gene remained significantly different between the PPHN and control subjects (P = 0.00014). The frequency of the TC/TT genotype of rs17034984 in the gene with the dominant model was significant in the patients with PPHN (OR = 5.38, 95% CI: 2.15-13.49). The T allele frequency of rs17034984 in the gene showed a significant difference compared with the control subjects (OR = 4.89, 95% CI: 2.03-11.82).CONCLUSIONSThe present study suggests that the rs17034984 variant of EPAS1 gene is associated with PPHN.