Endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene Glu298Asp polymorphism is associated with Behçet's disease.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The 894 G-->T (Glu298Asp) polymorphism in exon 7 of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene was previously reported to be associated with Behçet's Disease (BD) susceptibility in Italian origin and Korean patients, but not in a group of unrelated Turkish patients. We analyzed whether this polymorphism is associated with BD, in another group of Turkish patients. METHODS: We studied 132 consecutive Turkish BD patients being followed up by Ege University Rheumatology Department and 91 healthy controls. All individuals were genotyped by PCR-RFLP for 894 G-->T in exon 7 (Glu298Asp). RESULTS: The frequency of the T allele in BD group (101/264) was significantly higher than in healthy controls (OR 1.88, %95 CI 1.27-2.49, p < 0.001). The frequency of the homozygote (TT) Glu298Asp polymorphism in BD (27/132) was also significantly higher than in healthy controls (5/91) (OR 3.72, %95 CI 3.44-4.0, p < 0.001). However, no association was found between the Glu298Asp polymorphism and clinical parameters in BD. CONCLUSION: In this study, we found that Glu298Asp polymorphism of the eNOS gene was associated with BD in Turkish patients.