This study was designed to find out the impact of the variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) of the tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 (TNFRSF1B) on pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) risk in an Iranian population. This case-control study was done on 159 PTB patients and 158 healthy subjects. Bi-allelic TNFRSF1B VNTR was genotyped by polymerase chain reaction. Logistic regression analysis revealed no...

Osteoporosis (OP) is one of the most common chronic disorders; the disabilities that result from osteoporotic fractures (OPF) worldwide have an enormous impact on the health of individuals, societies and economies. Genetic factors together with environmental factors play an important role in regulating the development of osteoporosis as well as contributing to the susceptibility of osteoporotic...

Monoamine Oxidase A (MAOA) is a critical enzyme in the catabolism of monoaminergic neurotransmitters. MAOA transcriptional activity is thought to be regulated by a well characterized 30 base pair (bp) variable nucleotide repeat (VNTR) that lies approximately ∼1000 bp upstream of the transcriptional start site (TSS). However, clinical associations between this VNTR genotype and behavioral states...

Chronic periodontitis (CP) is an inflammatory disease of the teeth-supporting tissues in which genetic predisposition, dental plaque bacteria, and immune mechanisms all play important roles. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of IL-4 gene polymorphisms in chronic periodontitis and to investigate the association between polymorphisms and cytokines production after bacterial sti...

Molecular epidemiology analyses are frequently used in determining epidemiology of tuberculosis. Recently, Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR) and Spoligotyping has become an important method, as it allows high-through put, discriminatory and reproducible analysis of clinical isolate. The purpose of this study is to compare techniques of "MIRU-VN...

Background: The variable numbers of tandem-repeat (VNTR) alleles at the phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) gene have been used in carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis in phenylketonuria families. This study was carried out to analyze VNTR alleles at the PAH gene in Iranian Azeri Turkish population. Methods: In this study, 200 alleles from general population were studied by PCR. Results: The fr...

The variable numbers of tandem repeats (VNTR) analysis is a method frequently employed as a molecular epidemiological tool for Mycobacterium tuberculosis genetic fingerprinting. In this study, we characterized the population of M. tuberculosis circulating in Mie Prefecture, Japan, and assessed the utility of the proposed JATA12- and 15-VNTR analyses of 158 M. tuberculosis clinical isolates ...

Usher syndrome type IC is a rare, autosomal recessive sensorineural disorder caused by mutations in the USH1C gene, which encodes a PDZ-domain protein named harmonin. The Acadian-specific 216G-->A mutation in exon 3 and a variant 9-repeat VNTR allele (designated VNTR(t,t)) in intron 5 are in complete linkage disequilibrium. (The usual form of the allele is referred to as VNTR(t).) To gain insig...