"association between the polymorphism of tgf-β1 gene promoter (-509c>t) and idiopathic chronic urticaria "

idiopathic chronic urticaria (icu), the most common form (70-80%) of chronic urticaria is supposed to have immune basis causes. it is speculated that the promoter polymorphism of tgf-β1 gene may be involved in icu. this condition is thought to affect at least 0.1% of the population and often can be severe and difficult to treat. a total of 40 patients with icu and 41 normal subjects were studied. dna was extracted from whole blood and tgf-β1 promoter –509c>t polymorphism was determined by pcr-rflp method. out of the 40 patients with icu, 11 (27.5%) had cc, 26 (65%) had ct and 3 (7.5%) had tt genotypes. a higher proportion of case subjects with the c allele (ct type or cc type) was found compared with the t allele. these results do suggest an influence of genetic variability at the promoter of tgf-β1 gene (-509c>t) on the occurrence of icu. this polymorphism has been shown as a useful genetic change in our study. further work is required to confirm this result.