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International Journal of Endocrinology
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 235680, 7 pages
doi:10.1155/2012/235680
Association of MICA Alleles with Autoimmune Thyroid Disease in Korean Children
1Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine and Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, 505 Banpo-Dong, Seocho-Gu, Seoul 137-040, Republic of Korea
2Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine and Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, 505 Banpo-Dong, Seocho-Gu, Seoul 137-040, Republic of Korea
3Catholic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Bank, College of Medicine and Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, 505 Banpo-Dong, Seocho-Gu, Seoul 137-040, Republic of Korea
Received 7 August 2012; Revised 19 October 2012; Accepted 20 October 2012
Academic Editor: Ajai Kumar Srivastav
Copyright © 2012 Won Kyoung Cho et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background. Major histocompatibility complex class I chain-related gene A (MICA) is a ligand for the activating NKG2D receptor expressed on natural killer (NK) cells. We aimed to assess the association of MICA polymorphism with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) in Korean children. Methods. Eighty-one patients with AITD were recruited. We analyzed MICA polymorphisms by PCR-SSP and compared the results with those of 70 healthy controls. Results. In AITD, the allele frequencies of MICA*010 (; 95% CI, 1.30–3.76, , ) were higher than those of controls. Patients who did not have thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy showed higher frequencies of MICA*010 (; 95% CI, 1.47–6.08, , ) and lower frequencies of MICA*008 (; 95% CI, 0.01–0.62, , ) compared to those of controls. HLA-B*46, which shows the strongest association with AITD compared with other HLA alleles, showed the strongest linkage disequilibrium with MICA*010. Analyses of the associations between MICA*010 and HLA-B*46 with AITD suggest an association of the MICA allele with AITD. Conclusions. Our results suggest that innate immunity might contribute to the pathogenesis of AITD.