Abstract
BACKGROUND: Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is the most common form of autoimmune thyroid disease which leads, in most cases, to hypothyroidism. HT is also classified as a multifactorial disease, which is caused by an interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Current knowledge of HT genetics is still very limited, especially in Algerian population. OBJECTIVE: We wanted to investigate the association of two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) inside VAV3 and SEPS genes with HT in Algerian population. METHODS: We conducted a case-control study that included 100 HT cases and 126 healthy controls that were recruited from three private endocrinology clinics. Two SNPs, rs7537605 and rs28665122 inside VAV3 and SEPS genes were genotyped using real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR). Binary logistic regression model was used to test the association of selected SNs with HT and linear regression model was used to test association of these SNPs with thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb) levels. RESULTS: Binary logistic regression results revealed no allelic association of the minor allele A between Hashimoto's thyroiditis cases and healthy controls (P=0.896) for the rs7537606 in VAV3 gene. The same observation was reported for the AA (P=0.477), AG (P=0.752) genotypes and for the genotypic models: dominant (P=1.0) and recessive (P=0.555). Also, there was no significant difference in the TT (P=0.230), TC (P=0.717) and allelic distribution of the minor allele T (P=0.859), and the combined models: TT + TC (P=1.0), TC + CC (P=0.138) between patients and controls for the rs28665122 polymorphism of the SEPS1 gene. CONCLUSION: This is the first genetic study that investigated the genetic association of rs7537605 and rs28665122 inside VAV3 and SEPS genes in Algerian population. Our results suggest that these two SNPs may not be involved in the pathogeneses of HT since we found no association between them and HT/TPOAb levels. Further research that will include larger sample size is required.