Department of Pediatrics, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2011 May;52(5):607-11. doi: 10.1097/MPG.0b013e3182111b9b.
Biliary atresia (BA) is a destructive inflammatory obliterative cholangiopathy of neonates that affects both intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile ducts. Although the etiology is unknown, immunologically mediated injury of the bile ducts triggered by as yet unidentified infectious agents is likely to play a critical role. Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is a proinflammatory cytokine that plays an important role in immune, infectious, and inflammatory diseases because of its induction of interferon-gamma. In this study, we investigated whether polymorphisms of the IL18 gene were associated with susceptibility to BA.
Genomic DNA was extracted from whole-blood samples of 50 Taiwanese children with BA and 1117 ethnically matched healthy controls. The IL18 -1297 T/C, -607 C/A, -137 G/C, and +105 A/C polymorphisms were genotyped using the TaqMan assay.
No statistically significant differences of genotype, allele, carrier, and haplotype frequencies of these IL18 gene variants were found between children with BA and healthy controls.
Our data suggest that the IL18 gene does not play a major role in BA predisposition in Taiwanese children.
先天性胆道闭锁（BA）是一种影响肝内外胆管的新生儿破坏性炎症性闭塞性胆管病。虽然病因不明，但免疫介导的胆管损伤可能由尚未确定的感染因子触发，这可能发挥关键作用。白细胞介素-18（IL-18）是一种前炎症细胞因子，由于其诱导干扰素-γ的产生，在免疫、感染和炎症性疾病中发挥重要作用。在这项研究中，我们研究了白细胞介素-18 基因的多态性是否与 BA 的易感性有关。
从 50 名台湾 BA 患儿和 1117 名种族匹配的健康对照者的全血样本中提取基因组 DNA。采用 TaqMan 法检测 IL18-1297T/C、-607C/A、-137G/C 和+105A/C 多态性。
BA 患儿与健康对照组之间这些白细胞介素-18 基因变异的基因型、等位基因、携带者和单倍型频率无统计学差异。
我们的数据表明，白细胞介素-18 基因在台湾儿童的 BA 易感性中不起主要作用。
