Glucocorticoid receptor gene haplotype structure and steroid therapy outcome in IBD patients.

AIM To study whether the glucocorticoid receptor (GR/NR3C1) gene haplotypes influence the steroid therapy outcome in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). METHODS We sequenced all coding exons and flanking intronic sequences of the NR3C1 gene in 181 IBD patients, determined the single nucleotide polymorphisms, and predicted the NR3C1 haplotypes. Furthermore, we investigated whether certain NR3C1 haplotypes are significantly associated with steroid therapy outcomes. RESULTS We detected 13 NR3C1 variants, which led to the formation of 17 different haplotypes with a certainty of > 95% in 173 individuals. The three most commonly occurring haplotypes were included in the association analysis of the influence of haplotype on steroid therapy outcome or IBD activity. None of the NR3C1 haplotypes showed statistically significant association with glucocorticoid therapy success. CONCLUSION NR3C1 haplotypes are not related to steroid therapy outcome.