Relationship of polymorphisms located in tumor necrosis factor...

Polymorphism of TNFa, TNFb, and TNFd microsatellites, linkage disequilibrium (LD) within TNF region as well as relationship of TNF microsatellites with alleles at HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 loci was investigated on a sample of 160 Croatians, previously typed for HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 loci. Analysis of the relationship of TNF alleles and HLA specificities revealed that very strong associations exist between TNFa2, TNFb3, and TNFd2 alleles and HLA-A*01, -B*08, and -DRB1*03 specificities, therefore placing them in the 8.1 ancestral haplotype. Similar findings were observed for TNFa11, TNFb4, and TNFd4 alleles and HLA specificities, which are a part of the 7.1 ancestral haplotype. Finally, multiple associations with significant P-values were also observed between TNFa10, TNFb4, and TNFd4 microsatellite alleles and HLA-A*02, -B*18, -DRB1*11 specificities which form the 18.3 ancestral hapolotype. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 2009. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.