Polymorphism of IL-1beta; IL-1Ra, TNF-alpha Cytokine Genes in Korean Patients with Glomerulonephritis

Park, Mina; Kang, Yang Il; Rhee, Sang Youl; Jeong, Lae Ik; Na, Seung Yeon; Jeong, Kyung Hwan; Lee, Sang Ho; Lee, Tae Won; Ihm, Chun Gyoo

Abstract

BACKGOUND: Recently it has been reported that several cytokine gene polymorphisms regulate cytokine production and play an important role in immune and inflammatory response. We evaluated IL-1beta IL-1Ra, and TNF-alpha gene polymorphism in patients with primary glomerulonephritis to determine the association between cytokine polymorphism and disease susceptibility.
METHODS
In this study, we enrolled 118 patients with primary glomerulonephritis and healthy 300 persons who had visited the health screening center. We analyzed -511C/T polymorphism of IL-1beta tandem repeats polymorphism in intron 2 of IL-1Ra and -308G/A polymorphism of TNF-alpha We classified primary glomerulonephritis according to pathologic finding and clinical diagnosis.
RESULTS
There were no differences with IL-1betaand TNF-alpha gene polymorphism between patient and control group. The carriage of IL1RN*2 was significantly associated with an increased risk of primary glomerulonephritis (patients:control=12.75:5.4%, p<0.01). IL1RN*2 was significantly frequent in patients with membranous GN or minimal change disease (p<0.05). When we classified glomerulonephritis according to clinical diagnosis, IL1RN*2 carriage rate was higher in patients with nephrotic syndrome and RPGN or acute nephritic syndrome than patients with asymptomatic urinary abnormalities (p<0.05). IL-1beta(TT) genotype was more prevalent in acute glomerulonephritis (68.4%) than asymptomatic urinary abnormalities or other glomerulonephritis. TNF2 carriage rate showed a lower tendency in patients with asymptomatic urinary abnormalities.
CONCLUSION
IL1RN*2 is significantly associated with an increased risk of development of primary glomerulonephritis. We suggest cytokine gene polymorphism is also related to clinical manifestations of glumerulonephritis.