The Association between Prolonged Jaundice and TATA Box Dinucleotide Repeats in Gilbert's Syndrome.

Introduction: Jaundice is a common condition during the neonatal period. Prolonged jaundice occurs in a large number of breastfed infants, considering the impact of genetic factors on the incidence of jaundice.

Aim: To determine the association between prolonged jaundice and TATA box dinucleotide repeats in Gilbert's Syndrome (GS).

Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, the case group consisted of 51 neonates with jaundice, aged more than two weeks with indirect bilirubin level higher than 10 mg/dl. Acute diseases, mother's use of phenobarbital and other medications were the exclusion criteria. The control group consisted of 54 newborns without jaundice. The two groups were matched in terms of age and sex. TATA box polymorphisms in the promoter region of UGT1A1 gene were evaluated using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in order to determine TATA box dinucleotide repeats.

Results: Overall, 64.7% and 50% of subjects in the case and control groups were male, respectively (p=0.168). The mean age of neonates in the case and control groups was 20.1±7.1days and 18.8±4.1 days, respectively. The distribution of Gilbert genome was not significantly different between the two groups. In the case group, 13.7% of the subjects were homozygous, 37.3% were heterozygous and 49% were normal. In the control group, 7.4% of the participants were homozygous, 35.2% were heterozygous and 57.4% were normal.

Conclusion: The results of this study showed an association between TATA box polymorphism and prolonged jaundice in neonates which revealed that TATA box polymorphism is an important risk to increase and extend icterus.