Is there a relationship between endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene polymorphisms and ankylosing spondylitis?

OBJECTIVE: Nitric oxide is produced by endothelial nitric oxide synthase, and its production can be influenced by polymorphisms of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene. Because candidate genes responsible for susceptibility to ankylosing spondylitis are mostly unknown and available data suggest that there may be problems related to the nitric oxide pathway, such as endothelial dysfunction and increased asymmetric dimethylarginine, this study aimed to assess the association of common endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene polymorphisms with ankylosing spondylitis. METHODS: One hundred ninety-four unrelated Turkish ankylosing spondylitis patients and 113 healthy without apparent cardiovascular disease, hypertension or diabetes mellitus were included. All individuals were genotyped by PCR-RFLP for two single-nucleotide polymorphisms, namely 786T>C (rs2070744, promoter region) and 786 Glu298Asp (rs1799983, exon 7). Variable numbers of tandem repeat polymorphisms in intron 4 were also studied and investigated by direct electrophoresis on agarose gel following polymerase chain reaction analysis. The Bath ankylosing spondylitis metrology index of the patients was calculated, and human leukocyte antigen B27 was studied. RESULTS: All studied polymorphisms satisfied Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Sex distributions were similar between the patient and control groups. No significant differences were found in the distributions of allele and genotype frequencies of the studied endothelial nitric oxide synthase polymorphisms between patients and controls. There were no correlations between endothelial nitric oxide synthase polymorphisms, disease duration, Bath ankylosing spondylitis metrology index or human leukocyte antigen B27. CONCLUSION: The results presented in this study do not support a major role of common endothelial nitric oxide synthase polymorphisms in Turkish ankylosing spondylitis patients.