Autoimmunity 2002 Sep;35(6):377-80
Fernandes Filho JA, Vedeler CA, Myhr KM, Nyland H, Pandey JP.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical University of South
Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA.
Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and TNF-beta are proinflammatory cytokines that have been implicated in the pathogenesis of several autoimmune diseases.
The aim of this investigation was to determine whether a determinant in the first intron of the TNF-beta gene (TNF-beta(+252)) and two promoter-region polymorphisms of the TNF-alpha gene (TNF-alpha(-308) and TNF-alpha(-238)) affect susceptibility to multiple sclerosis (MS).
DNA samples from 133 Caucasian MS patients and 148 healthy controls from Norway were genotyped for several polymorphic determinants, using polymerase chain reaction-based restriction fragment length polymorphisms (PCR-RFLP) methods.
TNF-beta(+252) genotypes were significantly associated with MS: The frequency of TNF-beta 2,2 was increased (p = 0.00009) while the frequency of TNF-beta 1,2 was decreased (p = 0.0012) in MS patients as compared to controls.
TNF-alpha genotypes were not associated with MS.
These results suggest that the TNF-beta gene plays a significant role in the etiopathogenesis of MS.