The interleukin-23 receptor (IL-23R) has been shown to be associated with autoimmune diseases in many different populations. This study aimed to investigate the association between IL-23R gene polymorphism and susceptibility to Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) in Chinese Han population of Shandong.
A case–control cohort study was performed in 145 HT patients from First People's Hospital of Jining between February 2010 to October 2013 and 150 healthy controls. Two single nucleotide polymorphisms located in the promoter region of IL-23R gene (rs17375018 and rs7517847) were examined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was performed using the Chi-square test. Genotype frequencies were estimated by direct counting, and allele and genotype frequencies between patients and controls were analyzed by the Chi-square test.