ABSTRACT
AIM: Tumor necrosis factor-?(TNF-?) participates in the establishment of inflammatory lesions in pneumonia.High production of TNF-? may relate to the severity of pneumonia.There have already been several studies examining the association between pneumonia and single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs) that affect cytokine productivity.SNPs of TNF-?,-1 031,-863,-857,-308 and-238 have been identified.The variant alleles of these SNPs have suggested to be related to high TNF-? production and the severity of pneumonia.Therefore,the aim of this study is to examine the association between the severity of pneumonia in Chinese and the following SNPs: five in the TNF-? gene promoter(-1 031,-863,-857,-308,-238).METHODS: A total of 117 Chinese individuals were enrolled in this study.They were 67 patients with pneumonia and 50 healthy subjects.TNF-? was genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism for all subjects.The frequency distributions of genotypes in different groups were analyzed by SPSS 11.5 program.RESULTS: Frequency of subjects who carried at least one variant allele in TNF-?-1 031,-863,-857,-308,-238 SNPs among pneumonia patients was significantly higher than that in healthy subjects.And frequency of subjects who carried variant allele in TNF-?-863,and-308 SNPs among severe adult community acquired pneumonia patients was significantly higher than that in common pneumonia patients.CONCLUSION: TNF-?-863 and-308 SNPs appear to be associated with severe adult community acquired pneumonia in Chinese populations.