association between interleukin-19 (il-19) and interleukin-20 (il-20) genes polymorphisms with multiple sclerosis in an iranian population

myelin-directed autoimmunity seems to be an important factor in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (ms). growing productions of both anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory cytokines are frequent findings in ms. the il-10 is an immunosuppressive cytokine in the immune system. in the clinical trial, it is considered to be an anti-inflammatory therapy for inflammatory bowel disease and many other autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and ms. il-19 as well as il-20 belong to the il-10 family. it appears that polymorphisms, within these genes, affected the level of gene expression. the goal of the present study was investigating the possible associations between il-19 and il-20 genes polymorphisms with multiple sclerosis. therefore, 100 ms patients and 100 healthy controls were recruited in this study. genotyping for the il-19 (rs2243158gc, rs2243168gc) and il-20 1053tg (rs2981572, rs2981573) were executed using tetra-primer arms-pcr. the gc and at genotypes related to il-19 polymorphisms, rs2243158 and rs2243168, respectively, were significantly associated with multiple sclerosis (p = 0.004 and p 0.001 respectively). moreover, in the polymorphisms of il-20, tg genotype of rs2981572 and ag genotype of rs2981573 were significantly associated with the disease (p = 0.001 and p = 0.04 respectively). according to the results, these genotypes play a protective role against multiple sclerosis.