association of promoter polymorphisms of interleukin-10 and interferon-gamma genes with tuberculosis in azeri population of iran

promoter polymorphism of cytokine genes may lead to inter-individual differences in cytokine levels, therefore, polymorphisms may associate with susceptibility to infectious diseases. in this study, we investigated a possible association between interleukin-10 (il-10) -1082a⁄g (rs1800896) and interferon (ifn)-gamma +874t/a (rs2430561) promoter polymorphisms and tuberculosis (tb) in the azeri population of iran. il-10 -1082g/a and ifn-gamma +874t/a single nucleotide polymorphisms (snps) were genotyped by amplification refractory mutation system (arms)-pcr in 200 healthy controls and 124 tuberculosis patients. il-10 -1082 a allele was more frequent in the control group than in the patient group ( p =0.001, odds ratio [or]=2.183). on the other hand, the aa genotype was significantly more frequent in the control group ( p =0.0001). the frequency of ifn-gamma +874 t allele was significantly higher in the controls ( p =0.013, or=1.56). there was no significant association between ifn-gamma +874 t/a genotypes and susceptibility to tuberculosis ( p =0.078), but tt genotype was more frequent in the control group. our findings suggest that interleukin-10 -1082g/a polymorphism may play an important role in susceptibility to tuberculosis in our population. on the other hand, the +874t allele, which has been suggested to be associated with high ifn-gamma levels, was significantly higher in the controls and tt genotype was also more frequent in the control group. thus, +874 t allele may be associated with resistance to tuberculosis in this azeri population of iran.