[Tumor necrosis factor-alpha gene polymorphisms and risk of coronary heart disease].

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF-alpha) is a cytokine that has multiple functions. It could be involved in cardiovascular pathophysiology. Given this possibility, we measured serum TNF-alpha level by ELISA and use PCR-RFLP methods to examine the distribution of TNF-alpha locus gene polymorphism at -857 and -863 sites in coronary heart disease(CHD) patients and matched controls. We found the serum level of TNF-alpha of CHD is higher than that of controls(P<0.05),-863 genotype and allele have significant difference between two groups(P<0.05),and there are no difference in two groups at -857 site.