title: Association between  interleukin 21 and Graves' disease.
abstract: Graves'  disease (GD) is an organ-specific autoimmune thyroid disease; 25-50% of GD  patients will develop Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO). The etiology of GD and GO  may be multifactorial, but the immune response plays a central role. Many  studies have reported that IL-21 has crucial roles in autoimmune diseases. We  examined whether IL-21 is associated with the development of GD and GO. The  serum concentration of IL-21 was tested in 40 primary GD patients, 42 treated  GO patients and 24 healthy controls. Our data show that the serum level of  IL-21 is associated with the development of GD. We also made an association study  with the IL-21 gene polymorphisms rs4833837, rs907715 and rs13143866 in a comparison  of 633 patients and 612 healthy controls from the Chinese population. This  case-control association study demonstrated that rs907715 SNP is significantly  associated with GD, while the rs13143866 A allele is significantly associated  with GO. The haplotypes A-G-G and A-A-A were found at higher and lower  frequencies, respectively, in GD patients, suggesting a protective role for  A-A-A. However, there were no significant differences in the frequencies of  these haplotypes between the GO patients and the control group. We found no  association between IL-21 gene polymorphisms and the age of GD onset. We  conclude that IL-21 is associated with GD and GO.
authors: Shanghai Clinical Center for Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, Shanghai Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors: H Y
authors: HY
authors: Jia
authors: Z G
authors: ZG
authors: Zhang
authors: X J
authors: XJ
authors: Gu
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Guo
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Cui
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Ning
authors: Y J
authors: YJ
authors: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D005819:Genetic Markers; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006111:Graves Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D049970:Graves Ophthalmopathy / Q000235:genetics; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007378:Interleukins / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D055815:Young Adult; D000098546:Interleukin-21
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers; D007378:Interleukins; D000098546:Interleukin-21