New polymorphisms in the interleukin-10 gene--relationships to myocardial infarction.
BACKGROUND
Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is a cytokine with anti-inflammatory and B-cell-stimulating activity. IL-10 is expressed in human atherosclerotic plaques and recent studies have shown the involvement of IL-10 in the atherosclerotic process. Therefore, we hypothesized that polymorphisms in the IL-10 gene might be associated with a predisposition to coronary heart disease.


METHODS
To identify new polymorphisms in the human IL-10 gene, the entire coding sequence and the 3' flanking sequence of the gene were screened by polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCR) followed by sequencing. The polymorphisms identified, and three others which have been previously described in the promoter region of the IL-10 gene (G-1082A, C-819T, C-592A), were then investigated in the ECTIM Study, a large population-based case-control study of myocardial infarction.


RESULTS
Four new polymorphisms were identified: one in exon 1 (G+78/ex1A), which predicts a Glycine to Arginine change at position 15 in the putative signal peptide of the protein, two in the intron 3 (C+19/in3T, T+953/in3C) and one in the 3' flanking region (C+117T). All the IL-10 polymorphisms were in complete or nearly complete pairwise linkage disequilibrium. No case-control difference was found in genotype or allele frequencies for any of the polymorphisms.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that IL-10 polymorphisms are not associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction.
Donger
C
C
INSERM U525, Paris, France.
Georges
J L
JL
Nicaud
V
V
Morrison
C
C
Evans
A
A
Kee
F
F
Arveiler
D
D
Tiret
L
L
Cambien
F
F
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D017931:DNA Primers; D005091:Exons; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000235:genetics*; D007438:Introns; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D012307:Risk Factors
D017931:DNA Primers; D016753:Interleukin-10