title: Genetic association study of tumor necrosis factor-alpha with sepsis and septic shock in Thai pediatric patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the association between the genetic polymorphism of the tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) gene and the development of sepsis and septic shock in Thai pediatric patients and to investigate the clinical impacts of TNF-α polymorphisms in this population.
  
  
  METHODS
  To perform this genetic association study, a prospective analysis of pediatric patients (age < 18 years) with clinical sepsis/septic shock was conducted. All clinical data were collected by pediatric intensive care experts, and genetic analyses were performed at a central laboratory. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) located in the 5'-promoter region at position -308 was genotyped and the results were associated with clinical phenotypes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 167 Thai individuals were investigated, 66 of which were pediatric patients with sepsis/septic shock and 101 were healthy controls. Interestingly, we could not identify an association between sepsis and -308 (G/A) polymorphism, which have previously been demonstrated to be a major SNP associated with sepsis in several Caucasian populations, since there was no frequency difference between cases and controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this report, the major TNF-α polymorphism (-308) was not associated with clinical sepsis/septic shock in Thais. This information will be important for future analyses to identify the role of TNF-α as a genetic risk for the development of immunopathology underlying several diseases in Asia.
authors.affiliation: Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
authors.forename: Suwannee
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Phumeetham
authors.forename: Nunthawut
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chat-Uthai
authors.forename: Manutham
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manavathongchai
authors.forename: Vip
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Viprakasit
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D018805:Sepsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality; D012772:Shock, Septic / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha