A POPULATION-BASED CASE-CONTROL STUDY OF THE TUMOR-NECROSIS-FACTOR ALPHA-308 POLYMORPHISM IN MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) expression is enhanced in pati ents with active MS and other inflammatory diseases. A guanine-to-aden ine polymorphism at position -308 of the TNF alpha promoter region (th e TNF2 allele) is associated with increased TNF alpha expression. We e valuated 110 MS patients derived from an Olmsted County, MN, prevalenc e study. Three other patient cohorts (autoimmune, serious infectious i llness, and other neurologic diseases) and matched controls were deriv ed from a Mayo Clinic DNA bank. We used polymerase chain reaction ampl ification of specific alleles to screen for the TNF2 allele and. to de termine zygosity. We found one homozygote and 29 heterozygotes in the MS patients, There tvas no association between the presence of the TNF 2 allele and MS or the other disease categories by matched-pair and gr oup analyses.