Abstract
The interaction of FAS/FAS ligand (FASL) serves an important role in the upregulation of apoptotic processes through different mechanisms in cells. Previous studies have established that the polymorphisms FAS-670A/G and FASL-844C/T are associated with risk of generalized aggressive periodontitis (GAP) in different ethnic populations. Therefore, in the present study, it was investigated for the first time whether FAS-670A/G and FASL-844C/T polymorphisms were associated with risk of GAP in Iran. This case-control study performed the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method in 25 patients with GAP and 110 normal subjects as controls. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in FAS-670A/G genotype frequency between the GAP and control groups. A higher frequency of the combined genotype (AG+GG) was observed in the GAP patients (96.0%) compared with the control subjects (90.9%), though this was not significant [χ(2)=0.705, degrees of freedom (df)=1, P=0.401]. Similarly, the prevalence of the G allele was non-significantly higher in the GAP group (62.0%) compared with that in the controls (60.0%; χ(2)=0.012, df=1, P=0.913). For FASL-844C/T polymorphism, the frequency of the combined genotype (CT+TT) was higher in the GAP group (96.0%) when compared with the control subjects (91.8%); however its association was not statistically significant (χ(2)=0.519, df=1, P=0.471). The frequency of the T allele only marginally differed between the groups, being 60.0% in the GAP group and 50.9% in the controls (χ(2)=3.627, df=1, P=0.057). These results indicated that there were no significant associations between the FAS-670A/G and FASL-844C/T polymorphisms and the risk of disease in GAP patients when compared with normal individuals.