Background and aims: Crohn's disease is a multifactorial disorder with a pivotal role of the genetic component. HSP70-2 gene, located in IBD3 region, has a PstI polymorphic site associated recently with Crohn's disease especially with a perforating form. In this study, we sought to determine whether this polymorphism was associated with Crohn's disease in the Tunisian population and its correlation with clinical manifestation of the disease.
Methods: In all, 148 patients with Crohn's disease and 81 healthy individuals were genotyped for the HSP70-2 PstI polymorphism by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.
Results: The allele and genotype frequency of the PstI polymorphism did not differ between patients and controls. Furthermore, this polymorphism was not associated with specific disease behavior.
Conclusion: This study reported the absence of association between Crohn's disease and HSP70-2 gene in the Tunisian population. The allele A of PstI polymorphism was not associated with phenotype of the disease.