ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are both chronic inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, the main causes of which remain unknown. Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are characterized by cell-mediated immune response against the luminal bacteria. It is suggested that expression levels and function of P-glycoprotein, encoded by the MDR1 gene, are important for protection of the gut against xenobiotics and bacterial toxins. Therefore, the mutations of the MDR1 gene are thought to be related with the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the G2677T/A polymorphism in the MDR1 gene in Turkish patients with inflammatory bowel disease and a healthy control group. METHODS: In our study, the genotypes of endoscopically or histopathologically diagnosed Crohn's disease (n: 35; 14 F, 21 M) and ulcerative colitis (n: 82; 36 F, 46 M) patients and of 70 healthy individuals (39 F, 31 M) were compared. In the patient and control groups, polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was performed for two polymorphisms (G2677T and G2677A) of the MDR1 gene. RESULTS: In this study, the frequency of alleles at position 2677 of the MDR1 gene, which has a triallelic polymorphism, was not found to be significantly different between the patient and the healthy control groups. Moreover, the 2677A allele was not detected in either the patient group or the healthy control group. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the G2677T/A polymorphism observed in the MDR1 gene was not found to be a risk factor for Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.
