CTLA-4 gene polymorphisms (-318C/T, +49A/G, +6230A/G) in Iranian patients with multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system (CNS) characterized by multiple regions of demyelination and inflammation along axons with a T cell-mediated autoimmune etiology. While the cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) gene seems to be a strong candidate gene in autoimmune diseases, we investigated its association with a group of patients with MS. One hundred and thirty five patients with relapsing-remitting form of MS and 135 healthy subjects were enrolled in this study.