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.
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.
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).
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.
1Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, REPUBLIC OF KOREA
2Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, REPUBLIC OF KOREA
3Sanggye Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul, REPUBLIC OF KOREA
4Ulsan University Hospital, Ulsan, REPUBLIC OF KOREA
5GangNeung Asan Hospital, GangNeung, REPUBLIC OF KOREA
6Asan Institute for Life Sciences, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, REPUBLIC OF KOREA
Funding: Asan Institute for Life Science (2007-091) and the Korea Health 21 R&D Project. Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (03-PJ10-PG13-GD01-0002)
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