Interleukin 7 receptor alpha polymorphism rs6897932 and susceptibility to multiple sclerosis in the Western Balkans

The interleukin 7 receptor alpha single nucleotide polymorphism rs6897932 was identified as a multiple sclerosis susceptibility-modifying polymorphism in genome-wide and gene scan studies, mainly in populations in western countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of interleukin 7 receptor alpha rs6897932 with multiple sclerosis in populations from the Western Balkans: Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. A total of 678 unrelated white patients and 597 unrelated, ethnically matched healthy controls were included in the study. Genotyping was performed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. We found no significant difference in genotype or allele frequencies between controls and patients with multiple sclerosis either separately in Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian populations or in the whole sample from the Western Balkans. The odds ratio for multiple sclerosis in this study was 1.04 (0.86-1.25) for the C allele. It is known that demographic as well as environmental factors have a substantial role in multiple sclerosis development, as well as population genetic background. The results of this study indicate that other types of genome variants should be required for the development and/or progression of multiple sclerosis, which may vary among populations.