Tumor Necrosis Factor Gene Polymorphisms in Tunisian Patients With Behçet’s Disease

Behçet’s disease (BD) is an inflammatory disorder that is mainly characterized by recurrent oral and genital ulcers, skin lesions, and uveitis. Recent reports focused on the genetic factors of susceptibility to this disease and especially the TNF in view of the major role played by this proinflammatory cytokine in the lesional process of Behçet’s disease. In this report, we investigated the possible association between Behçet’s disease and the TNF-α gene promoter polymorphisms −1031T/C, −308A/G, and the TNF-β polymorphism +252A/G in Tunisian population. We compared the distribution of these polymorphisms between 89 BD patients and 157 healthy controls using polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length-polymorphism (PCR–RFLP) analysis. The frequency of the TNF-α −1031C allele was significantly higher in Behçet’s patients than in healthy controls (p = 0.015; χ2 = 5.84; OR = 1.65; 95% CI = 1.08–2.54), whereas the frequencies of the TNF-α −308G and the TNF-β +252G alleles were similar in the two compared groups. These results suggest that the variability of the TNF-α −1031T/C polymorphism can be associated with the susceptibility to Behçet’s disease in our study group. Therefore, the TNF molecule may have an important genetically and/or functionally implication in the pathogenesis of BD in the Tunisian population.