Association analysis between the human interleukin 1beta (-511) gene polymorphism and susceptibility to febrile convulsions.
Recently, an association between a regulatory polymorphism in the gene encoding the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1beta and febrile convulsions (FC) has been reported. In this study we attempted to confirm these findings in a sample consisting of 99 FC patients and 126 ethnically matched controls. Since about 3% of all FC patients experience unprovoked seizures (epilepsy) later during life we furthermore genotyped 43 patients with non-lesional temporal lobe epilepsy who reported a history of FC. In both samples we failed to show an association between the IL-1beta polymorphism and an increased risk for FC. We only found a trend towards an increased frequency and carriage of the putative IL-1beta susceptibility allele two in a sub-sample of 43 FC patients who reported a positive family history for seizures in first and/or second degree relatives. However, these trends did not reach statistical significance.
Tilgen
Nikola
N
University Department of Human Genetics, Wilhelmstrasse 31, 53111 Bonn, Germany.
Pfeiffer
Heike
H
Cobilanschi
Joana
J
Rau
Birgit
B
Horvath
Steve
S
Elger
Christian E
CE
Propping
Peter
P
Heils
Armin
A
D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007375:Interleukin-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D003294:Seizures, Febrile / Q000235:genetics*
D007375:Interleukin-1