Aim: This study aimed at evaluating the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in five cytokine genes regulating inflammation at altogether 8 different loci and compared their frequencies in patients with Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) versus healthy age and sex matched controls.
Methods: Peripheral blood was collected for DNA cytokine analysis from 23 patients with lBS and 20 healthy controls. The cytokine SNPs studied include TNF-alpha (-308G/A), TGF-alpha1 (codon10T/C, codon25G/C), IL-6 promoter (-1082A/G; -819T/C; -592A/C), IL-6 promoter (-174G/C), and IFN-alpha (+874T/A).
Results: There was a significant difference between a SNP in IL-b (-592A/C) among cases and controls. There was also a trend to significance as regards to IL-6 promoter (-174G/C). Frequencies of other SNPs were not significantly different between the two groups.
Conclusion: This pilot study shows that there are polymorphism differences in cytokine genes between patients with lBS and healthy controls from India.