Abstract: Objective To study the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of IFNA8 gene and the susceptibility to Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Han Chinese. Methods From January 2010 to December 2011, clinical data of pulmonary tuberculosis patients was collected from Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital. There were 1533 patients with tuberculosis as case group and 1445 volunteers as healthy controls. A case-control study was used in the research. SNPs of IFNA8 (rs1330322，rs10964982，rs4978116) were typed by a high-throughput sequenom genotyping platform. The allele frequency (AF), odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were calculated between case group and control group by using Chi-square test, P<0.05 was consi-dered to be significant. Results (1) The frequencies of allele A in the genetic locus rs1330322 were 30.5%(936/3066) in tuberculosis patients (TB) group and 27.8%(804/2890) in healthy control (HC) group. There were statistical differences between two groups(χ²=5.277, OR=1.140, 95%CI=1.019－1.275, P=0.022). The minor allele frequencies of rs10964982 and rs4978116 of TB group were 17.0% （520/3066） and 28.8%（882/3066）, respectively. And the minor allele frequencies of rs10964982 and rs4978116 of HC group were 17.0%(491/2890) and 28.6%(826/2890), respectively. The minor allele frequencies of rs10964982 and rs4978116 were no significant differences between two groups (χ²=0.001 and 0.025，P=0.976 and 0.874). （2） In sexual stratified analysis of rs1330322, the frequencies of allele A in female population of case group were 30.8%（330/1072）, and 26.6%（300/1126） in female of HC group. There were significant differences between two groups of female population (χ²=4.605，OR=1.225，95%CI=1.018－1.474，P=0.032). However, among male population, the frequencies of allele A were 30.4%（606/1994） and 28.6%(504/1764) in TB group and HC group without significant differences statistically (χ²=1.489, OR=1.091, 95%CI=0.948－1.256，P=0.222). （3） The frequencies of allele A in female less than 25 years old were 33.8%（111/328）and 25.2% （112/444）, respectively. There were significant differences between TB group and HC group (χ²=6.818，OR=1.516，95%CI=1.108－2.074，P=0.009). But the frequencies of allele A in female more than 25 years old were not significantly different between two groups (χ²=0.610，OR=1.096，95%CI=0.871－1.380，P=0.435).  Conclusion The genetic polymorphism of IFNA8 (rs1330322) is associated with TB, especially female population less than 25 years old. Allele A may be a risk factor for prediction of TB in female less than 25 years old.

Key words: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Interferon-alpha, Polymorphism, single nucleotide, Genetic predisposition to disease, Han nationality