Objective: To investigate the association of (-2578C/A) and (+936C/T) single nucleotide polymorphism(SNPs) of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene with the susceptibility to ulcerative colitis (UC).
Methods: A total of 373 UC patients and 503 healthy controls were recruited. The (-2578C/A) and (+936C/T) polymorphism of VEGF gene were detected using a mini-sequencing technique.
Results: By an unconditional logistic regression analysis, the frequencies of the mutant allele T and genotype CT+TT of VEGF gene (+936C/T) were significantly decreased in patients with severe UC compared to the controls (10.4% vs 19.3%, OR = 0.487, 95%CI 0.248-0.954, P = 0.036; 18.8% vs 33.8%, OR = 0.452, 95%CI 0.214-0.955, P = 0.037, respectively). Moreover, patients with severe UC had significant lower rates of mutant allele T and genotype CT+TT compared with patients with mild and moderate UC (10.4% vs 20.5%, OR = 0.452, 95%CI 0.229-0.894, P = 0.022; 18.8% vs 36.9%, OR = 0.394, 95%CI 0.185-0.842, P = 0.016, respectively). The frequencies of mutant allele A and genotype CA+AA of VEGF (-2578C/A) gene were not statistically different between UC patients and the controls. Moreover, they were not significantly associated with the clinicopathologic features in UC patients.
Conclusions: The mutation of VEGF (+936C/T) gene is correlated with the severity of UC. However, the polymorphism of VEGF (-2578C/A) gene is not significantly related to the susceptibility to UC.