Identification of IL13 C1923T as a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism for Asthma in Children from Mauritius

Research increasingly suggests that asthma is a familial and hereditary disorder and that genetic and environmental factors play a key role in its pathogenesis. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between 10 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci in the development of asthma in children from the Mauritian population. The study population consisted of 193 children with asthma and 189 healthy controls from the Mauritian population. Asthma was diagnosed in accordance with the American Thoracic Society criteria. TaqMan real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the genotypes of the SNP loci. No statistically significant differences (p>0.05) were found between the experimental and control group in genotype distribution among nine of the loci (MS4A2 E237G, MS4A2 C-109T, ADRB2 R16G, IL4RA Q551R, IL4RA I75V, IL4 C-590T, IL13 A2044G, IL13 C-1112T, and CHI3L1 C-131G). However, the frequency of IL13 C1923T TT in the asthma group was significantly higher than in the control group (odds ratio=2.119, p=0.033) suggesting that carriers of IL13 C1923T TT in the Mauritian population may have a more significant risk of developing asthma. The nine loci have little contribution to the development of childhood asthma in the Mauritian population. IL13 C1923T TT has been detected to be the susceptible genotype and may have a significant effect on the pathogenesis of childhood asthma in the Mauritian population.