title: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels and promoter polymorphism in patients with Kawasaki disease in Korea.
abstract: Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha plays a major role in the pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease (KD), a systemic vasculitis primarily affecting young children. We performed this study to examine the serum levels of TNF-alpha and to investigate a possible relation to promoter polymorphism at positions -238 and -308 in KD patients in Korea. We obtained 48 paired serum samples from 24 patients in the acute and subacute stages of KD, and control sera from 12 age-matched children who were having routine blood samples taken before elective surgical procedures. Our studies showed a significant increase in serum levels of TNF-alpha measured in the acute stage of KD (24.1 +/- 9.4 pg/mL) compared to those in the subacute stage (11.8 +/- 5.8 pg/mL; p < 0.01) and normal controls (10.4 +/- 4.9 pg/mL; p < 0.01). Previous studies report that the presence of the A allele at positions -308 and -238 may be associated with higher TNF-alpha levels. However, our results showed that the frequency of the A allele at position -308 in the KD patients was the same as the controls (2 out of 24, 8.3% vs. 8.3%, odds ratio (OR)= 1.00), while the frequency of the A allele at position -238 in the KD patients was lower than the controls (0/24, 0% vs. 8.3%, OR=0.00); this difference though was not statistically significant. We concluded that although TNF-alpha levels were significantly elevated in the acute stage of KD, there was no significant difference in the frequency of the A allele at positions -238 and -308 between the KD and control groups in Korean patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. dskim6634@yumc.yonsei.ac.kr
authors.forename: Sun-Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Gwang-Cheon
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Jeon-Soo
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Kyung Mi
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Dong-Soo
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D009080:Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha