The aim of this study was to investigate the putative functional polymorphisms within tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), tumor necrosis factor-beta (TNF-beta), interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) genes, in patients with GD (n = 137) compared to a healthy Thai control group (n = 137).
Specific TNF and LTalpha alleles were strongly associated with GD (Pc = 3 x 10(-5) and 0.001) and weak associations were seen for HSP70-1 + 190C and HSP70-2 + 1267G polymorphisms (Pc = 0.05 and 0.01).
To investigate further the role of TNFB in predisposition to Graves' disease, we determined whether the TNFB disease associations in the Chinese were similar to those in Caucasians.