Association of tumor necrosis factor alpha gene polymor-phisms with inflammatory bowel disease in Iran

Background: inflammatory bowel disease (ibd) is a chronic disease of unknown etiology,in which genetic factors,seem to play an important role in the disease predisposition and course. assessment of tumor necrosis factor (tnf-α) gene polymorphisms in many populations showed a possible association with ibd. considering the genetic variety in different ethnic groups,the aim of the present study was to investigate the association of five important single nucleo-tide polymorphisms (snps) in the promoter region of (tnf-α) gene with ibd in iran. methods: in this case-control study,156 ulcerative colitis (uc) patients,50 crohn's disease (cd) patients and 200 sex and age matched healthy controls of iranian origin were enrolled. the study was performed during a two year pe-riod (2008-2010) at taleghani hospital,shahid beheshti university of medical sciences,tehran,iran. dna samples were evaluated for (tnf-α) gene polymorphisms (including -1031,-863,-857,-308 and -238) by pcr and rflp methods. results: the frequency of the mutant allele of -1031 polymorphism was significantly higher in iranian patients with crohn's disease compared to healthy controls (p=0.01,or=1.92; 95% ci: 1.14-3.23). none of the other evaluated polymorphisms demonstrated a significant higher frequency of mutant alleles in iranian ibd patients compared to controls. conclusion: among the five assessed (snps),only -1031 polymorphism of (tnf-α) gene may play a role in disease susceptibility for crohn's disease in iran. this pattern of distribution of (tnf-α) gene polymorphisms could be specif-ic in this population.