['Common variations with modest effect in complex and polygenic disease such as premature ovarian failure (POF) can be detected by a genome wide association study. We performed a genome wide association study to identify predisposing genes associated with an increased risk of POF.', 'In stage I, genome wide association study was performed using 24 POF patients and 24 matched controls. A strongly associated region was re-tested to confirm the association with POF in stage II using 98 patients and 218 matched controls.', 'In the stage I, we found a strongly associated region that was located on chromosome 1q31 and encoded the laminin gamma 1 (LAMC1) gene. All 22 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the LAMC1 formed a linkage disequilibrium block and two haplotypes were significantly associated with POF. In the stage II, 14 SNPs, the majority of which were SNPs located in coding region and tagging SNPs, were genotyped. Distributions of 9 SNPs of them including one nonsynonymous SNP (rs20558) and one haplotype (HT1, C-C-T-G-C-C-A-T-T-C) were significantly higher in POF patients than in control group (86.6% and 74.5%, respectively, OR=2.209, CI: 1.139-4.284, P=0.017).'] Is lAMC1 gene associated with premature ovarian failure?