Association of interleukin-6 polymorphisms with obesity and metabolic alterations in young Saudi population

Rising levels of obesity are a global problem that is being exported from affluent to developing nations through the gradual "westernization of lifestyle". Population of Saudi Arabia is going through a nutrition transition where customary and traditional food is being replaced by fast food high in fat, sugar and salt. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a central player in the regulation of inflammation, haematopoiesis, immune response and host defense mechanisms. During the last decade, an accumulating amount of data suggested a pivotal role for IL-6 in metabolic processes, thus fortifying the picture of IL-6 as a multifaceted, pleiotropic cytokine. The Objective is to investigate the relationship between IL-6 (rs1554606) polymorphism and the risk of obesity in young Saudi population. Totally 204 Saudi young obese subjects were involved in this study. Genotyping of IL-6 was performed by the real-time polymerase chain reaction technology, using the Taq Man 5'-allele discrimination assay. IL-6 (rs1554606) AA versus AG (p < 0.01) and AA versus GG (p < 0.01) shows significant difference between Male and female group in genotypic as well as allelic distribution differ significantly, while AG versus GG did not differ significantly (p > 0.5). We have observed significant effects for Genotyping, LDL, CHOL, AST, ALP, BILIT, BMI at 5% (0.05) significance level in the study population. Our results shown that IL-6 polymorphism have significantly differ in both male and females subjects. We have observed that some evidence of interactions of the IL-6 polymorphism and have shown statistical significant association with elevated BMI, Lipid profile and total bilurubin in the study subjects.