association between interleukin-4 promoter and receptor polymorphisms and t-cell count in iranian hiv positive population

background: single nucleotide polymorphisms (snps) in the il4 promoter and receptor genes have been proposed to alter the individual’s susceptibility to hiv infection and the rate of progression to aids. il4 589 c/t and il4rα i50v polymorphisms have been studied in different populations and were linked to differences in disease progression. no study has assessed the frequency of these polymorphisms in iranian population.methods: in a crosssectional study, after obtaining written informed consent, blood samples were collected from 120 hivseropositive individuals (91 males, 12 females) visiting a tertiary referral hiv center. all patients were primarily screened with the fourthgeneration elisa hiv test for the hiv1 markers and subsequently with polymerase chain reaction (pcr). cd4+ cell count of the patients was recorded by using fresh edtawhole blood samples. the genomic dna was extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (pbmc) using the standard extraction kit. then, pcrrflp technique was used to analyze il4 589 c/t, and il4rα i50v snps.results: a frequency of 0.08 was found for il4 589 t allele and 0.055 for il4rα v allele. there was no significant difference between these polymorphisms regarding cd4 cell counts (p = 0.44 and p = 0.08 for il4 589 and il4rαi50v, respectively). conclusion: this is the first study to assess the frequency of il4 promoter and receptor polymorphisms in the iranian hivseropositive population. no significant association was found between il4 promoter and receptor polymorphisms and cd4 cell counts.