Vascular endothelial growth factor and tumor necrosis factor genes polymorphisms in Turkish patients with sarcoidosis

Polymorphism at -857 locus of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha gene is considered to be a predisposition factor in sarcoidosis and held responsible for pathogenesis of the disease and polymorphism at +813 locus of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene is thought to decrease predisposition to sarcoidosis. In our study, we examined and compared these polymorphisms in healthy Turkish control subjects and Turkish patients with sarcoidosis. We examined gene polymorphisms in 70 cases which were histopathologically diagnosed as sarcoidosis and 80 healthy subjects without any history of a chronic disease. 5 cc of blood were collected in tubes with EDTA from all of the cases. TNF-alpha-857 gene polymorphism and VEGF+813 gene polymorphism were determined using PCR + RFLP method after DNA isolation. TNF-alpha promoter polymorphism, at position -857, revealed no differences in genotype and allele frequency between patients and control subjects but more relapses were found in sarcoidosis patients who have this polymorphism. Considering the VEGF polymorphism at position +813, we observed a significant increase in the frequency of rarer T allele at this position in healthy subjects compared with sarcoidosis patients. VEGF gene polymorphism at +813 locus may diminish susceptibility to sarcoidosis. TNF-alpha-857 gene polymorphism influence severity of the disease.