Cytokine single nucleotide polymorphisms in Iran.

Overall expression and secretion of cytokines are dependent on genetic nucleotide variations within or adjacent to regulatory regions of cytokine genes. This study allows the comparison of the prevalence of particular genetic markers. In 40 Iranian healthy subjects, cytokine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were used to determine allelic and genotypic frequencies for the following cytokine genes: interleukin-1alpha (IL-1alpha) (T/C -889), IL-1beta (C/T -511, T/C +3962), IL-12 ( C/A-1188), interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) (A/T UTR 5644), transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) (C/T codon 10, G/C codon 25), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) (G/A -308, G/A -238), IL-2 (T/G -330, G/T +166), IL-4 (T/G -1089, T/C -590, T/C -33), IL-6 (G/C -174, G/A nt565), IL-10 (G/A -1082, C/T -819, C/A -592), IL-1R (C/T pst11970), IL-1RA (T/C mspa 111100), IL-4RA (G/A +1902). All typing was performed using the PCR-SSP assay. Iranian and Italian, English, German, and Greek populations had similar cytokine profiles, but in some cases, the Iranian allele and genotype frequencies were significantly different from those of other Asian and African American populations for the majority of polymorphisms.