Tumor necrosis factor-alpha gene polymorphisms in children with mutliple sclerosis

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is a cytokine implicated in the pathogenesis of infectious and autoimmune disorders including multiple sclerosis (MS). Childhood-onset MS presents some clinical and laboratory features differing from adult disease. We studied TNF-α -238 G→A and -308 G→A polymorphisms in 24 patients with childhood-onset MS using PCR-RFLP and compared them with healthy control subjects from the same population (n = 93). The genotypes and allele frequencies were not different between patient and control groups (p=0.348, 95%Cl, 0.28-1.92, X²=0.10 and p=0.797, 95%Cl, 0.312-2.285, X² = 0.20 for -238 and -308 alleles, respectively). Although the size of the study group is small, these results do not support a role for TNF-α gene polymorphisms in susceptibility to MS in children.