RESUMO
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the distribution of macrophagemigration inhibitory factor gene (MIF) -173 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of Chinese Han population in Zhejiang province.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The DNA samples were extracted from EDTA blood of 142 unrelated healthy individuals. Alleles of MIF -173 SNP were genotyped by using the techniques of tetra-primer amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) and restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP)-PCR Meantime the PCR products were cloned and sequenced.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The authors detected three kinds of genotypes at the MIF -173 locus, and no deviation was observed from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The final results were the same completely, whatever either tetra-primer ARMS or RFLP-PCR was used to check the MIF -173 single nucleotide polymorphism. Statistical analysis showed that the distributions of MIF -173 SNP alleles and genotype frequencies were significantly different between Chinese Han population and European Caucasian(P< 0.01), but no significant difference demonstrated to happen between Chinese and Japanese(P> 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Tetra-primer ARMS is an accurate, rapid and economical method for SNP genotyping.There exists ethnic difference in the distribution of MIF -173 SNP alleles.</p>