Introduction: Inflammation might be one of the causes of stone disease. The function of the transporter associated with antigen-processing protein (TAP) is related to immune response and inflammation. Our aim was to investigate the relationship between stone disease and 5 polymorphic sites of the TAP gene (TAP1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3).
Materials and methods: We compared the frequencies of 5 polymorphisms in the TAP gene between 208 patients with recurrent calcium oxalate stone and 210 healthy controls. The polymorphism was detected by polymerase chain reaction-based restriction analysis.
Results: Significant differences in the frequency of the polymorphism at the TAP2-2 site were detected between normal individuals and calcium stone disease patients (p<0.0001). The distribution of the genotype AA homozygote was higher in stone patients (33.3%) than in the control group (16.3%). The odds ratio for the A allele compared with the G allele was 2.097 (95% CI 1.571-2.802).
Conclusions: We conclude that the TAP2-2 MspI polymorphism might be associated with calcium stone disease.
Copyright (c) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel.