Study of vascular endothelial growth factor A gene polymorphisms in association with Iranian rheumatoid arthritis patients

Abstract

BackgroundRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoinflammatory disease, in which synovial cells in the joints produce a complex network of cytokines. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been reported to be overexpressed in RA patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible association of three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of VEGFA gene with susceptibility to RA in Iranian population. MethodsThe study group was comprised of of 300 RA patients and 249 age, sex, and ethnicity matched healthy individuals. Three SNPs of rs2010963, rs833061, and rs3025039 in the VEGFA gene were genotyped in both case and control groups using TaqMan Real-time PCR allelic discrimination technique. ResultsFrequencies of neither the alleles nor genotypes of all three SNPs in VEGFA gene displayed significant differences between RA patients and healthy controls. Four haplotypes of TGC, TCC, CGC, and CGT (rs833061 T/C-rs2010963 G/C-rs3025039 C/T) had statistically significant association with the risk of RA (but without enough power). Patients with the three genotypes of rs833061 SNP show significantly different Rheumatoid factor (RF) levels. ConclusionsThe alleles and genotypes of VEGFA gene polymorphisms were not associated with the disease susceptibility in Iranian RA population.