Positive correlation between vitamin D receptor gene TaqI variant and gastric cancer predisposition in a sample of Iranian population.

Gastric cancer is the second cause of cancer-related mortality and the fourth most common cancers worldwide. Owing to the immune modulatory effect of vitamin D in the body, the role of vitamin D receptor gene in vitamin D regulation receives a great deal of research interest. The aim of the current study was to highlight the association between two variants of TaqI and FokI in the vitamin D receptor gene and gastric cancer predisposition in a sample of South Khorasan population. The present investigation consisted of 69 patients affected with gastric cancer and 100 healthy individuals. The genomic DNA was extracted by salting out the protocol from peripheral venous blood. Genotyping of TaqI and FokI variants were performed by PCR-RFLP method. Our findings manifested that TC genotype of TaqI polymorphism was statistically significant between the case and the control groups (p = 0.002). Moreover, the frequency of TC + CC genotypes was statistically significant between the two groups (p = 0.009). Furthermore, we could not find any meaningful association between FokI variant and the participant groups. The present results declared that, in our population, TC genotype of TaqI polymorphism has an association with gastric cancer susceptibility. In addition, more investigation with greater sample sizes is needed to confirm our results.