@Article{ecn.2009.0143,
AUTHOR = {Mohammad Hossein Nicknam, Mahdi Mahmoudi, Ali Akbar Amirzargar, Ahmad Reza Jamshidi, Nima Rezaei, Behrouz Nikbin},
TITLE = {HLA-B27 subtypes and tumor necrosis factor α promoter region polymorphism in Iranian patients with ankylosing spondylitis},
JOURNAL = {European Cytokine Network},
VOLUME = {20},
YEAR = {2009},
NUMBER = {1},
PAGES = {17--20},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/ECN/v20n1/65913},
ISSN = {1952-4005},
ABSTRACT = {Background. HLA-B27 is an MHC class I molecule that is strongly associated with ankylosing
spondylitis (AS). TNF-α, as an important cytokine in inflammatory joint disease, might have a role in the pro-cess
of AS. This study was performed to determine HLA-B27 subtypes among Iranian patients with AS, and to
investigate TNF-α gene polymorphisms in the patient groups. Methods. Ninety seven AS patients (74 HLA-B27-positive
and 23 HLA-B27-negative) and 137 healthy normal subjects (2 HLA-B27-positive) were enrolled
in this study. HLA-B27 positive patients were screened using the polymerase chain reaction, with sequence spe-cific
primers (PCR-SSP), for B*27 subtyping. All patients and the controls were also investigated for determina-tion
of TNF-α polymorphisms using the same method. Results. Just two subtypes were detected in our patients,
namely B*2705 (63.4%) and B*2702 (36.6%). The study of TNF-α polymorphisms at position -238 showed that
the A allele and AA genotype were significantly over-represented in all patient groups in comparison with the
control group (p < 0.001). At position -308, while the A allele and AA genotype were significantly over-represented
in the whole patient group (p = 0.01), there was no significant difference between the AS groups
and the control group. Conclusion. It could be suggested that a polymorphism within the TNF-α gene at -238
play an important role in AS, although this polymorphism was not related to HLA-B27 subtypes.},
DOI = {10.1684/ecn.2009.0143}
}