Polymorphism in tumor necrosis factor genes associated with myasthenia gravis.
The aim of this study was to analyze associations between myasthenia gravis (MG) and polymorphisms in the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) region in 79 Swedish patients and 155 unrelated controls. The frequency of the TNFa2 allele of a microsatellite located 3.5 kb upstream of the lymphotoxin alpha (LT-alpha) gene in the TNF region was found to be increased in overall MG patients compared to controls. The frequency of the short 5.5 kb fragment (TNFB * 1) of a bi-allelic NcoI RFLP polymorphism located at the first intron of the LT-alpha gene was increased in patients with an early onset of disease compared to patients with a later onset.
Department of Molecular Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
P
P
Hjelmström
C S
CS
Peacock
R
R
Giscombe
R
R
Pirskanen
A K
AK
Lefvert
J M
JM
Blackwell
C B
CB
Sanjeevi
D017668:Age of Onset; D000483:Alleles; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics; D008233:Lymphotoxin-alpha / Q000235:genetics; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000235:genetics; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012016:Reference Values; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000235:genetics*
D008233:Lymphotoxin-alpha; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha