Introduction: Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in Romania. Evidence in supporting the role of the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha in ischemic pathogenesis is now well established. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the relationship between TNFα -308G>A polymorphism and ischemic stroke in a Northern Romanian population group and to determine whether it has an influence on the risk of cerebral events. This is a cross-sectional, randomized, case-control study for the evaluation of TNFα -308G>A polymorphism alleles frequency among patients with ischemic stroke.
Material and method: The study included 108 patients diagnosed with ischemic stroke (neurological and CT scan examination), and 118 healthy unrelated controls. TNFα -308G>A genotyping was carried out using PCR-RFLP technique. The amplification of the relevant gene fragment was subjected to restriction enzyme digestion, followed by gel electrophoresis.
Results: Molecular analysis did not reveal an increased frequency of GA mutant genotype in the study group compared to the control group (p = 0.879, OR = 0.928, CI = 0.512–1.682).
Conclusions: We found no significant differences in distribution of the TNFα -308G>A polymorphism between ischemic stroke patients and controls.