Statistical analysis
Statistical analyses were performed with IBM SPSS Statistics version 17.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL). The chi-square test was used to determine the difference in sex and distributions of allele as well as the genotype frequency between GD patients and normal controls. The risk effect of each SNP was measured by odds ratios (OR ) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). P values were corrected using the Bonferroni correction method considering multiple tests. The corrected P (Pc ) value of the allele was P × 18 and Pc of the genotype was P × 27 in the first stage, while the Pc value of the allele was P × 4 and Pc of the genotype wasP × 6 in the second stage and combined study. Pc<0.05 was defined as indicative of statistical significance. The ttest or Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze the difference in age, mRNA expression, and cytokine production among various genotypes.