0000000000186497
AUTHOR
Anke Kruger
Tumor necrosis factor alpha promoter polymorphism at position -238 is associated with chronic active hepatitis C infection
Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) is involved in the pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis C virus infection. The gene for TNF-alpha is encoded in the major histocompatibility locus (MHC). Two polymorphisms at positions -308 and -238 in the TNF-alpha promoter region might influence TNF-alpha expression. These promoter polymorphisms have been linked previously to a number of infectious diseases. TNF-alpha promoter polymorphisms at positions -238 and -308 were studied by DNA sequencing and sequence-specific oligonucleotide hybridization in 82 individuals with chronic hepatitis C and 99 control subjects. Subjects had been HLA class I and class II typed in a previous study. The frequency of t…
Differential regulation of interleukin-10 production by genetic and environmental factors – a twin study
Interleukin-10 (IL-10) has a critical role in the regulation of immune responses. The relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to IL-10 production is under debate. We performed a twin study in 246 monozygotic and dizygotic twins to assess the heritability of IL-10 production after LPS stimulation in whole blood. In addition, the influence of promoter single nucleotide polymorphisms (-1082, -819 and -592) on transcriptional activity and their binding to nuclear factors was studied in luciferase reporter gene and electrophoretic mobility shift assays. IL-10 production showed a genetic determination with a heritability of 0.5. Decreasing body mass index (BMI), smoking and fem…
Gp91phox-containing NAD(P)H oxidase increases superoxide formation by doxorubicin and NADPH
Doxorubicin is a highly effective antineoplastic drug associated with a dose-dependent cardiotoxicity that may result in irreversible cardiomyopathy and heart failure. Gene variants of the superoxide-generating enzyme NAD(P)H oxidase have recently been associated with this phenotype. We investigated the mechanism of this association using lucigenin-enhanced chemiluminescence, spectrophotometry, electrochemical sensor, and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Superoxide production was measured in female wild-type and NAD(P)H oxidase-deficient (gp91phox knockout) mice. The magnitude of the increase in superoxide production on the addition of doxorubicin was much higher in hearts of w…
A TNF-α Promoter Polymorphism Is Associated with Juvenile Onset Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis
Tumor necrosis factor-α is considered to be one of the important mediators in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. A strong association of juvenile onset psoriasis with the major histocompatibility complex encoded HLA-Cw6 antigen has been reported but it is unclear whether Cw6 itself or a closely linked gene is involved in the pathogenesis. This study has focused on the association of promoter polymorphisms of the major histocompatibility complex encoded tumor necrosis factor-α gene with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Tumor necrosis factor-α promoter polymorphisms were sought by sequence-specific oligonucleotide hybridization and by direct sequencing in Caucasian patients with juvenile onset …
Sequence analysis of the DRB1 promoter reveals limited polymorphism with no influence on gene expression.
HLA-class II promoters contain a set of conserved regulatory regions necessary for constitutive and induced gene expression. For the HLA-DQB as well as for the DRB1 promoter sequence, polymorphisms with influence on gene expression have been reported. In contrast to these data we could show that there is very limited allele-specific polymorphism among the HLA-DRB1 promoter alleles. In a long range PCR we amplified a DNA sequence containing the promoter and the second exon of the DRB1 gene in one fragment. Nested PCR products of this PCR fragment for the promoter and for the second exon were analysed by DNA sequencing to allow the linkage of a promoter to its DR allele. Most investigated DRB…