title: Interferon-gamma +874A/T and interleukin-4 intron3 VNTR gene polymorphisms in Chinese patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The polarization of Th1/Th2 towards Th1 contributes to the pathogenesis of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). Cytokines may play crucial roles in the pathogenesis of ITP. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the interferon (IFN)-gamma +874(A/T) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) in intron3 polymorphisms may be responsible in part for genetic susceptibility to ITP.
  
  
  METHODS
  Genotyping of IFN-gamma +874A/T and IL-4 intron3 VNTR was performed in 196 patients with ITP and 128 healthy individuals by polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific primers and direct PCR respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no association between IFN-gamma +874A/T and IL-4 intron3 VNTR polymorphism and ITP risk when all patients, as a group, were analyzed. When the patients were subdivided into two groups: childhood ITP and adult ITP, no statistical differences were found in the genotype and allele frequencies of IFN-gamma +874A/T and IL-4 intron3 VNTR between the two groups and the controls. Similar results were observed between acute childhood ITP, chronic childhood ITP, acute adult ITP or chronic adult ITP and the controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These polymorphisms were distributed similarly between the patients with ITP and the controls, demonstrating that these two candidate gene polymorphisms are not attributed to ITP susceptibility.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, Institute of Hematology and Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jianhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Zhenping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zeping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Yuling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Renchi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhong Chao
authors.initials: ZC
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000235:genetics*; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats; D017354:Point Mutation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D016553:Purpura, Thrombocytopenic, Idiopathic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D015847:Interleukin-4; D007371:Interferon-gamma