title: Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α-308 gene polymorphism in Indian patients with Takayasu's arteritis - a pilot study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α)- 308 promoter gene polymorphism has been shown to be associated with several autoimmune disorders and infections such as tuberculosis. There is no study on TNF-α gene polymorphism in Takayasu's arteritis (TA) till date. We aimed to study this polymorphism in TA, a granulomatous vasculitis, probably triggered by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  TNF-α - 308 gene polymorphism was studied in 34 patients with TA and 39 healthy controls recruited from Christian Medical College, India. PCR was done followed by enzyme digestion. G and A polymorphisms were analysed. Occurrence of alleles in the disease group was compared with controls as well as with historical controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  GG allele was most frequent in TA and in controls. GA allele was detected in four controls but only in one patient who was the oldest in the study group. AA polymorphism was detected in one control but not in TA. When compared with controls from other populations, it was found that our allelic frequency was similar to that in Japan as well as from USA with mixed population. However, predominantly Caucasian population studied from Netherlands, Germany and England, where TA is rare, had a higher frequency of A allele as compared to our controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our preliminary results indicated that G allele at TNF-α - 308 was more common in TA patients and controls similar to that in other Indian as well as Japanese population. Compared to the western population, A allele was relatively less common in our study subjects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology, Christian Medical College & Hospital, Vellore, India.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sandhya
authors.forename: Sumita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Danda
authors.forename: Debashish
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Danda
authors.forename: Shraddha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lonarkar
authors.forename: Shana S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Luke
authors.forename: Shanta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Joseph
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D013625:Takayasu Arteritis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha