A Study on Relationship Between Tumor Necrosis Factor α Gene Promoter Polymorphism and Susceptibility to Development of COPD

Objective To study the relationship between tumor necrosis factor α gene (TNF-α) promoter polymorphism and susceptibility to development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD). Methods Polymerase chain reaction(PCR) together with polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and silver stain was used to detect the polymorphism of TNF-α gene in 104 cases of patients with COPD (COPD group)and 44 cases of subjects without COPD (control group) and their susceptibility to development of COPD was analyzed. Results The frequencies of TNF-α 1/1 homozygous genotype in COPD group and in control one were 0.6923 and 0.8401,respectively. A statistic difference was found in their frequencies(P0.05). The frequency (0.2596) of TNF-α 1/2 heterozygous genotype in COPD group was significantly higher than that of the control one (P0.05). Statistical analysis showed that COPD group had a significantly higher TNF-α 2 allele frequency (0.1779) than that of the control one (0.0558) (P0.05), RR=3.59 (95%CI 1.36～9.47, P0.01). Conclusions The presence of the TNF-α 2 allele may be associated with the susceptibility to COPD, so it may be considered a genetic marker to be used to early identification of individuals at high risk of COPD caused by smoking habits, which may play an important role for preventing the development of COPD in clinical practice.