MDR1 C3435T polymorphism associated with the development of clinical features in Behçet's disease in Iranian Azeri Turkish patients.

BACKGROUND Behçet's disease (BD) is a systemic vasculitis of unknown cause with a higher prevalence along the ancient Silk Road. Behçet's occasional familial aggregation and its close association with genes of major histocompatibility complexes justify that genetic factors play an important role in the development of the disease. In this study, we evaluated the association of multidrug resistance (MDR1) C3435T polymorphism with the severity of BD. METHOD We investigated the distribution of MDR1 C3435T polymorphism in 69 patients from the Iranian Azeri Turks group with BD and 92 ethnically sex-matched healthy controls, via the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism technique. RESULT Although there was no significant association of MDR1 C3435T polymorphism between two groups of patients and healthy controls, our data showed a substantial association of CC genotype with the development of several clinical features, including erythema nodosum (P = 0.001, OR = 2.686, 95%), pseudofolliculitis (P = 0.002, OR = 2.812, 95%), and skin lesions (P = 0.040, OR = 1.934, 95%). CONCLUSION These results suggest that CC genotype is a risk factor for the development of some clinical features of BD in patients from the Iranian Azeri Turk ethnic group.