Association of tumour necrosis factor-alpha G/A -238 and G/A -308 single nucleotide polymorphisms with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Summary Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a heterogeneous autoimmune disorder of unknown origin. As proinflammatory cytokines are known to contribute towards the pathogenesis of JIA, this case–control study was performed to examine the associations of certain single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of tumour necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) gene. Fifty‐three patients with JIA participated in this study as patients group and compared with 137 healthy unrelated controls. Genotyping was performed for TNF‐α gene at positions ‐308 and ‐238, using polymerase chain reaction with sequence‐specific primers method. Results of the analysed data revealed a significant positive association for TNF‐α gene at positions ‐308 and ‐238 for A allele in patients group compared with controls (P