Ehsan Rizk1*, Ashraf Mohamed2 , Abdelnaser Badawy3 , Naglaa Mokhtar3 , Eslam Eid2 , Noha Abdelsalam2 , Sameh Abdellatif4 , Mona Balata5 , Emad Elmasry1
Background: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is one of the autoimmune disorders affecting many organs and systems with heterogeneity in clinical manifestations and disease course. Cytokines may play a role in the pathogenesis of the disease.
Objectives: To assess the possible role of the polymorphisms of IL-18 and IL-27 genes in SLE development.
Subjects and methods: A case control study was conducted on 120 patients with SLE and 100 ages-matched healthy individuals considered the control group. The IL-27-924A/G and IL-18-607C/A polymorphisms by RFLP-PCR.
Results: For IL-27 924A/G gene polymorphism, The AA genotype was more frequent in SLE group in comparison to the healthy individuals (P=0.04, OR (95% CI)=2.3(1-5.4). On the other hand, AG genotype frequency was higher in the control group (p=0.03, OR (95%CI)=0.4(0.16-0.9). In addition, we observed that AA genotype and A allele were associated with lupus nephritis. Regarding IL-18-607C/A polymorphism, we did not found any variation in the frequency of genotypes and alleles between the studied groups. There was relationship between A allele and lupus nephritis.
Conclusion: We concluded that the susceptibility to SLE was increased with IL-27-924 AA genotype, while the AG genotype may have a protective role in the occurrence of SLE however IL-18-607C/A polymorphism has no role the disease development but AA allele might increase the incidence of lupus nephritis.