Association between non-Hodgkin lymphoma and haplotypes in the TNF region.

The cytokines tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) and lymphotoxin-alpha (LTalpha) are known to play key roles in B-cell growth, differentiation and maturation. Genetic polymorphism within regulatory regions of these cytokine genes can alter expression levels and may be important in development of lymphoid malignancy. This study investigates a number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and microsatellite variants present within these genes in a large cohort of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) cases including 211 cases of follicular lymphoma (FL) and 281 cases of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and 478 unaffected controls.

Haplotypic structure across the I kappa B alpha gene (NFKBIA) and association with multiple myeloma.

Polymorphisms in NFKBIA may be important in pre-disposition to and outcome after treatment, of multiple myeloma (MM). The NFKBIA gene product, IkappaBalpha, binds to NF-kappaB preventing its activation and is important in mediating resistance to apoptosis in B-cell lymphoproliferative diseases. This study investigates eight polymorphisms across the NFKBIA gene in large patient and control populations.

Haplotypes in the tumour necrosis factor region and myeloma.

This study described the haplotypic structure across a region of chromosome 6 including the tumour necrosis factor (TNF) gene, and investigated its influence on the aetiology of myeloma. A total of 181 myeloma cases from the Medical Research Council Myeloma VII trial and 233 controls from the Leukaemia Research Fund Case Control Study of Adult Acute Leukaemia were included in the analysis. Genotyping by induced heteroduplex generator analysis was carried out for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) located at positions -1031, -863, -857, -308 and -238 of the 5' promoter region of TNF-alpha gene, and 252 in the LT-alpha gene; and five microsatellites, TNFa, b, c, d and e.