Gene Polymorphisms of 22 Cytokines in Macedonian Children with Atopic Dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common chronically relapsing skin disease associated with abnormal cytokine production, and activation of T-helper 2 cells. The aim if this study was to determine whether cytokine gene polymorphisms might influence the development of AD. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in the genes for I-L1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-1R, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, TGF beta, TNF and IFNgamma were investigated by PCR and sequence specific primers in Macedonian patients with AD (67 children, age of 6 months to 5 years) and  301 normal  unrelated  individuals. Susceptible cytokine polymorphisms  for  AD  for eleven genotypes (IL-4 -33/T:T  IL-4 -1098/G:G, TGFbeta cdn25C:G,    IL-4 -1098/T:T,  IL-1alpha -889/C:T, IL-2 +166/T:T, IL-1beta -511/C:T, IL-12 -1188/C:T, IL-10 -1082/A:G, IL-1beta +3962/C:T, IFNgamma +874/A:T), five diplotypes, six haplotypes, and for alleles were found. Protective cytokine polymorphisms for AD for seven cytokine genotypes (IL-4 -1098/G:T,  TGFbeta  cdn25/G:G,  IL-4  -33/C:C,  IL-1alpha -889/C:C,  IFNgamma  +874/A:A, IL-10 -1082/A:A,   IL-1beta -511/C:C), one cytokine diplotypes, two cytokine haplotypes, and four cytokine alleles were also found. We concluded that several cytokine polymorphisms are protective, or susceptible associated with AD in population of Macedonians.