Exp Mol Med.  2003 Apr;35(2):76-82.

Association between interleukin 6 promoter variants and chronic hepatitis B progression

• Park BL
• Lee HS
• Kim YJ
• Kim JY
• Jung JH
• Kim LH
• Shin HD

Abstract

Interleukin 6 (IL6) plays an essential role in the regulation of immune response to chronic disease. In this study, the three known single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the IL6 promoter region were genotyped in a large chronic hepatitis B cohort to evaluate the effects of IL6 promoter variants. The single base extension method was used for this genotyping. Haplotypes were constructed by the three SNPs in IL6. Allele frequencies were compared for; i) patients with chronic hepatitis (CH) and chronic carriers vs. chronic hepatis patients with clinical evidence of liver cirrhosis (LC) (i.e., portal hypertension), ii) cirrhotic patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) vs. without HCC by logistic regression, and iii) with respect to the time intervals from the onset of infection to HCC. Results were analyzed by Cox relative hazard analysis on the assumption that all the patients were infected during early infancy. The frequencies of each SNP were 0.002 (IL6-597 G>A), 0.25 (IL6-572 C>G) and 0.002 (IL6-174 G>C), respectively, in the Korean population (n = 1,046). No significant associations were detected between IL6-572 C>G and chronic hepatitis B outcome in this study; i.e., chronic hepatitis B outcome in this study; i.e., LC occurrence on CH (OR = 0.16-1.27, P = 0.13- 0.71) and HCC occurrence on LC (OR = 1.04-1.23, P = 0.89-0.60) of heterozygotes and homozygotes for G allele in referent comparison to homozygotes for common allele (C/C genotype), and time interval to HCC (RH = 0.67-1.00; P = 0.14-0.99). In conclusion, there appeared to be no significant associations between IL6 promoter variants and disease outcome in chronic hepatitis B.

Keyword

carcinoma; hepatocellular; haplotypes; he-patitis B virus; interleukin-6; polymorphism; single nu-cleotide; promoter regions (genetics)

MeSH Terms

Aged
Alleles
Asian Continental Ancestry Group/genetics
Female
Haplotypes/genetics
Hepatitis B, Chronic/*genetics
Human
Interleukin-6/*genetics
Korea
Linkage Disequilibrium
Male
Middle Aged
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide/genetics
Promoter Regions (Genetics)/*genetics
Variation (Genetics)/*genetics