Vitamin D Receptor Gene TaqI, BsmI and FokI Polymorphisms in Korean Patients with Tuberculosis

BACKGROUND The active metabolite (1, 25-dihydroxycholecalciferol) of vitamin D (25-hydroxycholecalciferol) leads to activation of macrophages and deficiency of vitamin D seems to be involved in the risk of tuberculosis. The effects of vitamin D are exerted by interaction with the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and may be influenced by polymorphism in the VDR gene. In this study, variation in the VDR gene was investigated in Korean population with tuberculosis. METHODS We typed three VDR polymorphisms of restriction endonuclease sites for TaqI, BsmI and FokI in 155 patients with tuberculosis and 105 healthy volunteers. RESULTS The frequencies of FokI genotypes determined from TB patients were 29.13% for FF, 56.31% for Ff, and 14.56% for ff. We observed 1.4-fold increased prevalence of the Ff genotype in TB patients compared with normal healthy groups (p=0.0857). However, there was no significant association between the genotype groups, TB patient and normal control, for FokI polymorphism. There was also no significant association between VDR gene and tuberculosis in another polymorphism (BsmI and TaqI). CONCLUSION Three polymorphisms (TaqI, BsmI and FokI) in the VDR gene do not appear to be responsible for host susceptibility to human tuberculosis in Korean population.