Association of a TNIP1 Polymorphism with Vogt- Koyanagi-Harada Syndrome but Not with Ocular Behcet’s Disease in Han Chinese

Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the association of TNFa-induced protein 3 interacting with protein 1 (TNIP1) gene polymorphisms with Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada (VKH) syndrome and Behcet’s disease (BD) in a Han Chinese population. Methods: A total of 656 BD patients, 961 VKH syndrome patients and 1534 healthy controls were included in this two-stage case control study. Seven SNPs, including rs17728338, rs7708392, rs10036748, rs3762999, rs999556, rs4958881 and rs3792783, belonging to TNIP1 were genotyped and analyzed by the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. The data were analyzed by using the x2 or Fisher’s exact test and corrected for multiple comparisons by the Bonferroni method. Results: A significantly increased frequency of the GG genotype and a decreased frequency of the AG genotype of rs17728338 were found in VKH patients (Pc = 0.038 OR = 1.934, 95 % CI = 1.438,2.601). No significant difference was noted in allele or genotype frequencies of rs7708392, rs10036748, rs3762999, rs999556, rs4958881 and rs3792783, between VKH patients and healthy controls (Pc.0.05). No significant difference was noted in allele or genotype frequencies of the tested 7 SNPs between BD patients and healthy controls. Analysis of extraocular clinical findings, did not reveal an association of the TNIP1 gene polymorphisms with BD or VKH syndrome subgroups