Association between ‘interleukin’ 10 gene (IL10) polymorphisms and systemic sclerosis with interstitial lung involvement

Systemic sclerosis (SSc), also termed as “scleroderma”, is a progressive, systemic disease of unknown origin characterized by excessive fibrosis, vascular abnormalities and immune dysfunction. Extracellular matrix (ECM) production by fibroblasts in SSc is modulated and regulated by cytokines. Since IL10 has antiinflamatory properties and, contributes to the fibrotic processes in SSc, we analyzed IL-10 gene polymorphisms including −1082 G/A, −819 C/T and −592C/A in 45 systemic sclerosis patients with lung involvement and 150 healthy control using ARMS-PCR. While no association was found between SSc and −819C/T, −592C/A polymorphism, −1082 G/A allele frequency in SSc patients was higher than that in control and significant association was found between SSc and −1082 G/A (Pc: <0.000, OR: 2.85 95% CI: 1.74–4.63). In addition significant difference was found between the frequencies of the IL-10 GCC, ACC haplotypes (Pc: <0.000, OR: 2.85, 95% CI: 1.74–4.63; Pc: 0.012, O.R: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.09–2.23, respectively), GCC⁺/GCC⁺, GCC⁻/GCC⁻ genotypes (Pc: 0.002, OR: 5.07, 95% CI: 1.82–14.21; Pc: <0.000, O.R: 4.00, 95% CI: 1.87–8.98, respectively) and SSc. Our findings suggest that IL-10 1082 G/A alleles or haplotypes containing these alleles may play role in SSc susceptibility.