Association of TNF-α-3959T/C Gene Polymorphisms in the Chinese Population with Intracranial Aneurysms

Recent studies have demonstrated that cytokines play an important role in the pathogenesis of intracranial aneurysm (IA). Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is an important proinflammatory cytokine, which was shown to influence the development of IA, but there is no research data from China. Hence, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between TNF-alpha polymorphisms and IA in China. The association of genetic variants of TNF-alpha gene expression was investigated in a Chinese population with IA. The TNF-alpha-3959T > C(rs1799964), 4127C > A(rs1800630), 4133C > T(rs1799724), 4184C > T(rs4248158), and 4752G > A(rs361525) gene polymorphisms in 192 IA cases and 112 controls were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Differences in genotype and allele frequencies between patients and controls were tested. There were no significant differences in 4127C > A (p = 0.072), 4133C > T (p = 0.373), 4184C > T (p = 0.749), and 4752G > A (p = 0.184) genotype frequencies between the IA group and the control group. But this case-control association study revealed that TNF-alpha-3959T > C (p < 0.001) was significantly associated with increased risk of IA. These results suggested that a novel TNF-alpha locus was found to be closely correlated with the occurrence of IA in Chinese.