Polymorphisms of interleukin-1R receptor antagonist genes in patients with chronic hepatitis B in Iran

To investigate the relationships between polymorphisms of interleukin-1R receptor antagonist genes and susceptibility to chronic hepatitis B in Iran population.

Genomic DNA was extracted from the peripheral blood of 80 patients with chronic hepatitis B (57 males, 23 females) aged 12-77 years (mean 36.1 +/- 13.8 years) and 147 normal controls (96 males, 51 females) aged 6-75 years (mean 41 +/- 18.7 years) who referred to a liver clinic of Tehran and then subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. PCR products were resolved on a 3% agarose gel and stained with ethidium bromide.

Only three of the five kinds of polymorphism (2/2, 2/4, and 4/4) were found in this study. The frequencies of 2/2, 2/4, and 4/4 were 12.5%, 17.5%, 70% respectively in chronic hepatitis B patients and 6.8%, 24.5%, and 68.7% respectively in controls. IL-1 R allele 2 was detected in 30% of chronic hepatitis B patients and in 31.3% of controls, while IL-1 R allele 4 was detected in 87.5% of chronic hepatitis B patients and in 93.2% of controls. The frequency of IL-1R alleles 2 and 4 was detected in 21.25% and 78.75% of the patients and 19.04% and 80.96% of the controls, respectively.

Our results suggest that the carriage of IL-1R receptor antagonist alleles 2, 4, 6 may not play any role in the development of HBV infection. Large population-based studies are needed to investigate the role of IL-1 polymorphisms in the pathogenesis of developing chronic hepatitis B.