Four hundred and twenty-five Japanese patients with POAG, including normal tension glaucoma (NTG, n=213) and high tension glaucoma (HTG, n=212) and 189 control subjects without glaucoma were analyzed for two p53 polymorphisms (rs1042522; a G→C substitution at codon 72 in exon 4 and rs59758982; a 16 base pair insertion in intron 3) using allele specific primer PCR and a pyrosequencing technique respectively. Here, TP53 is linked to low tension glaucoma.