Polymorphisms and haplotypes in TLR9 and MYD88 are associated with the development of Hodgkin's lymphoma: a candidate-gene association study

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and myeloid differentiation primary response protein 88 (MYD88) gene polymorphisms may be involved in the pathogenesis of Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) through altered immunoregulatory and inflammatory responses. A candidate-gene association study was conducted to investigate the association between TLR9 -1237TC, TLR9 2848AG, MYD88 -938CA and MYD88 1944CG gene polymorphisms and the risk for HL. The impact of haplotypes was also examined. The study showed that carriership for -1237C and 2848A was associated with an increased risk for HL (odds ratio (OR)=2.53 (1.36-4.71) and OR=6.20 (1.3-28.8)). The MYD88 polymorphisms produced nonsignificant results. The estimated frequencies of the TLR9/1237C-2848A and MYD88/938C-1944G haplotypes were also significantly different between HL and controls (P0.01). In addition, a significant difference between HL and controls was observed for the TLR9/1237C-TLR9/2848A-MYD88/938C-MYD88/1944C haplotypes (P0.01). In conclusion, our study showed that TLR polymorphisms, and TLR9 and MYD88 haplotypes are related to the development of HL.