Vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms in Iranian Azary patients with Behçet’s disease

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of our study was to investigate the association of four polymorphisms of the VDR gene (FokI, BsmI, TaqI, and ApaI) with their susceptibility to Behçet’s disease (BD) and their clinical manifestations with respect to the Iranian Azari population.

Method: In this cross-sectional study we considered the BsmI, FokI, ApaI, and TaqI polymorphisms in 50 Iranian Azary patients with BD and 50 healthy controls, with the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP).

Results: A significant difference was found for the FokI polymorphism between the case and control groups. The f allele frequency of 26% was present in BD patients, compared to only 13% in the control group. In addition, the f/f genotype was significantly associated with BD. We found no significant differences between the BD and control groups regarding the distribution of ApaI, BsmI, and TaqI genotype frequencies. We found no association between VDR polymorphisms and the clinical manifestations of BD.

Conclusions: The VDR f allele and f/f genotype are associated with BD in the Iranian Azari population.

Acknowledgements

We thank Professor Sayyed Mohammad Hossein Ghaderian and Dr Hale Akhavan-Niaki for their critical discussion of this work. This study was undertaken as collaboration between the Connective Tissue Research Centre and Tabriz Genetic Analysis Centre of TUMS.