Associations of TNFSF11 gene polymorphisms with knee osteoarthritis in postmenopausal women

Objective: to identify the role of rs9594738 and rs9594759 polymorphisms of the TNFSF11 gene in the development of osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee joints (KJ) in postmenopausal women. Materials and Methods. Our case-control study involved 483 postmenopausal women. Of these, 157 were diagnosed with primary KJ OA. The remaining 326 women without signs of joint disease were included in the control group. Molecular genetic studies included the determination of rs9594738 and rs9594759 polymorphisms of the TNFSF11 gene using the real-time polymerase chain reaction method. Results. Analysis of the distribution of genetic markers in two groups of women demonstrated a reduction in the frequency of occurrence of the TT genotype of the rs9594738 polymorphism among patients with OA (odds ratio 0.59; 95% confidence interval 0.36-0.97; p=0.049). The distribution of the alleles of this polymorphism, as well as the alleles and genotypes of the rs9594759 polymorphism of the TNFSF11 gene in the group of women with OA, did not differ significantly from the results of the molecular genetic examination of the control group (p>0.05). Conclusion. We established an association between the rs9594738 polymorphism of the TNFSF11 gene and KJ OA in postmenopausal women. Further studies of the role of polymorphic variants of the TNFSF11 gene in the etiopathogenesis of KJ OA are needed to develop individual approaches to the prevention and treatment of this disease.