Association of intronic repetition of SLC26A4 gene with Hashimoto thyroiditis disease.

Intronic microsatellites repeats were implicated in the pathogenic mechanisms of several diseases. SLC26A4 gene, involved in the genetic susceptibility of autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD), harbours large non-coding introns. Using the tandem repeat finder (TRF) Software, two new polymorphic microsatellite markers, rs59736472 and rs57250751 , located at introns 10 and 20, respectively, were identified. A case-control design including 308 patients affected with AITD (146 GD, 90 HT and 72 PIM) and 212 unmatched healthy controls were performed for each marker ( rs59736472 , D7S2459 and rs57250751 ). Furthermore, we used PHASE 2.0 version to reconstruct haplotypes, Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) and the Clump analysis program for multivariate analysis. The fluorescent genotyping revealed three alleles (106,112 and 115 bp) for rs57250751 and 12 alleles for both D7S2459 and rs59736472 ranging from 134 to 156 bp and from 144 to 168 bp, respectively. The case-control analysis confirmed the positive association of D7S2459 with Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) disease previously reported. Moreover, a significant association was found only with rs59736472 and HT disease. Haplotype-specific analysis showed that the 140-148-115 haplotype may increase the risk of HT (χ 2 =9·8, 1 df , P =0·0017, OR=2·07, IC [1·27–3·36]). Consequently, considering the number of repetitions of both D7S2459 and rs59736472 , we found 15 alleles ranging from 45 to 59 repetitions. The case-control analysis showed a significant association of the 55 repetition with HT disease (χ 2 =6·32, 1 df , p c =0·012, OR=1·74, IC [1·1–2·76]). In conclusion, we suggest the association of longer alleles of intron 10 of SLC26A4 gene with HT disease.