Single nucleotide polymorphisms of the inflamatory cytokine genes: interleukin-1B, tumor necrosis factors-A and tumor necrosis factor-B in adult patients with immune thrombocytopenia.

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune disease characterized by thrombocytopenia due to platelet autoantibodies, causing an accelerated clearance of opsonized platelets by phagocytes. The etiology of ITP remains unclear, both genetic and environmental factors may have a role in the disease development. The aim of our study was to investigate a possible association of three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the genes for interleukin beta (IL1B-511C/T), tumor necrosis factor beta (TNF+252G/A) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFA-308G/A) with ITP.