Synergistic Effect of the TNF-α -308G/A and CD14 -159T/C Polymorphisms in Predicting Asthma Risk for Young Korean Children with Recurrent Wheezing

Article Outline

• Rationale
• Methods
• Results
• Conclusions
• Copyright

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Rationale 

Although there is a clinical index for defining asthma risk, it would be useful to identify genetic markers for predicting asthma development in young children with recurrent wheezing. TNF-α and CD14 are associated with childhood asthma.

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Methods 

Children with recurrent wheezing (n = 449) and nonatopic healthy children without previous wheezing (n = 241) were genotyped by PCR-RFLP analysis. The Asthma Predictive Index was used to classify recurrent wheezers as having high (n = 266) or low (n = 183) asthma risk.

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Results 

Recurrent wheezers showed a significantly higher frequency of the TNF-α -308A allele compared to controls (odds ratio [OR], 2.00; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.20-3.35; p = 0.007), and frequency of homozygosity for the CD14 -159C allele (OR, 1.78; 95% CI, 1.05-3.02; p = 0.031) was higher only in high risk wheezers. Comparison of allele frequencies in the high- and low-risk groups revealed that CD14 -159CC homozygotes were more frequent in the high-risk group (OR, 1.908; 95% CI, 1.04-3.48; p = 0.035), while there was no significant difference for the TNF-α -308A allele. Finally, children co-inheriting the TNF-α -308A and CD14 -159C alleles had a significantly higher risk for recurrent wheezing (OR, 3.88; 95% CI; 1.66-9.09; p = 0.003).

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Conclusions 

These findings suggest that the TNF-α -308G/A and CD14 -159T/C polymorphisms may prove useful as genetic markers for predicting asthma risk among young Korean children with recurrent wheezing.