title: Gene polymorphisms of macrophage migration inhibitory factor affect susceptibility to chronic hepatitis B virus infection in an Iranian cohort.
abstract: Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), a key proinflammatory mediator, plays important roles in chronic diseases. In this study, an attempt was made to clarify the associations between some functional polymorphisms such as MIF-173 G/C, MIF 95 bp and 189 bp insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphisms and chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Polymorphisms were assessed in 221 HBV patients and 200 normal subjects. MIF-173 G/C and MIF 95 bp and 189 bp I/D polymorphisms were genotyped using PCR-RFLP and PCR, respectively. When allele and genotype frequencies of the variants were compared between patients and controls by the χ(2) test, it was found that the frequency of MIF-173 G/C genotypes differed significantly between patients with chronic HBV and healthy controls (P < 0.05). Carriers of the MIF -173-C allele were at significantly higher risk of HBV infection than carriers of the MIF -173-G allele (P = 0.009, OR = 1.549, 95% CI = 1.114 - 2.155). Moreover, 95 bp I/D polymorphism was not associated with CP and the 185 bp I/D variant was not polymorphic in our group of subjects. The frequency of haplotypes did not differ significantly between groups (χ(2)  = 11.391, P = 0.181). Our results suggest that MIF -173 G/C variant increases the risk of HBV in Iranian subjects. Further studies with larger sample sizes and different ethnicities are required to validate our findings.
authors.affiliation: Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center.|Department of Histology, School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Bita
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Moudi
authors.affiliation: Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center.|Department of Histology, School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Heidari
authors.affiliation: Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center.|Department of Histology, School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Hamidreza
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mahmoudzadeh-Sagheb
authors.affiliation: Cellular and Molecular Research Center.|Department of Clinical Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hashemi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D001483:Base Sequence; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D006239:Haplotypes; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D054643:INDEL Mutation; D019746:Intramolecular Oxidoreductases / Q000235:genetics*; D007492:Iran; D008263:Macrophage Migration-Inhibitory Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
chemical_list: D008263:Macrophage Migration-Inhibitory Factors; D019746:Intramolecular Oxidoreductases; C515598:MIF protein, human
keywords: hepatitis B; macrophage migration inhibitory factor; polymorphism