The same year, an independent case–control study conducted in 400 patients with AITD and 238 controls of Japanese descent found several adjacent SNPs in TSHR intron 7 significantly associated with GD, but not with autoimmune hypothyroidism, suggesting that polymorphisms in the TSHR intron 7 could contribute to GD susceptibility (32). This evidence concerns the gene TSHR and Hashimoto thyroiditis.