The present study was designed to investigate an association of common -588C/T and -23G/T polymorphisms within glutamate cysteine ligase modifier subunit gene with susceptibility to bronchial asthma. A total of 435 ethnically Russian subjects were recruited in this study, including 221 patients with asthma and 214 sex and age matched healthy subjects. As previously reported, the -588C/T and -23G/T polymorphisms were completely linked. The -588TT/-23TT genotype was found to be associated with decreased risk of allergic asthma after adjustment for age, gender and smoking status using multivariate logistic regression analysis (OR=0.33 95% CI 0.15-0.70, p=0.036). However, the -588CT/-23GT genotype was associated with increased risk of non-allergic asthma (OR=2.03 95% CI 1.05-3.90, p=0.06). This is a first study reporting the association between genetic variations in the glutamate cysteine ligase gene and susceptibility to bronchial asthma.