Monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 −2518 A/G SNP in Chinese Han patients with VKH syndrome

PURPOSE Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) syndrome is an autoimmune disease. The monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) gene has been implicated in the pathogenesis of certain autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to examine whether a MCP-1 polymorphism was associated with VKH syndrome. METHODS A case-control analysis was performed using genomic DNA samples from 307 VKH patients and 319 age-, sex-, and ethnically-matched healthy controls. The MCP-1 polymorphism at the -2518 A/G locus was genotyped using polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay. RESULTS The distribution of genotypic frequency of the MCP-1 -2518 A/G polymorphism in all subjects did not deviate from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE; p>0.05). Allelic and genotypic frequency analysis revealed no significant difference between VKH patients and healthy controls for the MCP-1 -2518 A/G polymorphism (p>0.05). No significant differences were found according to gender and neither was found according to extraocular findings including neck stiffness, tinnitus, alopecia, poliosis, dysacusia, scalp hypersensitivity, and vitiligo. CONCLUSIONS The result suggests that the susceptibility to VKH syndrome in Chinese Han patients may be not influenced by the MCP-1 -2518 A/G polymorphism.