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Purpose

In order to investigate the underlying genetic mechanisms of Graves’ ophthalmopathy (GO), we examined the association between single-nucleotide polymorphisms in five important proinflammatory cytokines, namely IL-12, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-2, and IL-6, with GO in a sample of Iranian adults.

Methods

A total of 57 patients with Graves’ disease without GO, 50 patients with GO, and 140 healthy controls were enrolled. Patients were recruited consecutively from the outpatient endocrine clinic of a large university general hospital. Genotype and allele frequencies of the following proinflammatory cytokines were compared between the groups: IL-12 (− 1188A/C), TNF-α (− 308A/G,− 238A/G), INF-γ (UTR 5644A/T), IL-2 (-330T/G, 166G/T), and IL-6 (− 174C/G, nt565A/G). A corrected (for multiple testing) P-value (P c) less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

The IL-12− 1188C allele (odds ratio (OR)= 2 …