title: Association of the interleukin (IL)-16 gene polymorphisms with Graves' disease.
abstract: Interleukin (IL)-16 was one of the cytokines with the function of T helper cell recruitment, whose expression in the thyrocyte and orbital fibroblast of Graves' disease (GD) patients was increased. Recently association of IL-16 gene polymorphisms with autoimmune diseases had been reported. However, there was little known about the impact of IL-16 gene polymorphisms on GD. In this study, we performed a case-control association study of three tagSNPs (rs4778889-rs1131445-rs4778641) within the IL-16 gene on 258 patients with GD and 208 healthy subjects in the Chinese population. Our data showed that common IL-16 variants were associated with GD (P=0.013-0.0186) and Graves' disease associated ophthalmopathy (GO) (P=0.0033-0.041). A novel protective haplotype containing the three tagSNPs (C-T-C) was observed in association with GO (P=0.013). In conclusion, IL-16 gene was significantly associated with susceptibility to Graves' disease and Graves' disease associated ophthalmopathy in the Chinese population.
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Clinical Center for Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, Shanghai Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, PR China.
authors.forename: Xue-Jiang
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Ze-Fei
authors.initials: ZF
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Hao-Yan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiao-Ying
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Guang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ning
authors.forename: Yong-Ju
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000483:Alleles; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D006111:Graves Disease / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D019410:Interleukin-16 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
chemical_list: D019410:Interleukin-16