Endocrine Abstracts

The role of genetic factors in the pathogenesis of Graves’ disease (GD) is not clear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms in pro-inflammatory cytokine genes and GD in Iranian patients. A case–control hospitalbased study was carried out on 107 GD patients and 140 healthy controls. Cytokine typing was performed by PCR with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) assay. The allele and genotype frequencies of the following cytokine genes were determined: TNF-α (−308A/G, −238A/G), IL2 (−330T/G, ?166G/T), IL6 (−174C/G, A/G nt565), IL12 (−1188A/C), and IFN-γ (UTR 5644A/T). The following alleles and genotypes were significantly overrepresented in patients: TNF-α −308A allele (P 0.01) and AA genotype (P 0.05), IL2 −330G allele (P 0.01) and GG genotype (P 0.01), IL 6 −174C allele (P 0.01) and CC genotype (P 0.01), IL12 −1188C allele (P 0.01) and CC genotype (P 0.01), IFN-γ UTR5644T allele (P 0.01) and TT genotype (P 0.01). In conclusion, this is the first study to show a significant association between GD and IL2 −330G, IL12 −1188C, and IFN-γ UTR 5644T alleles.

Our results support the hypothesis that polymorphism in pro-inflammatory.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.