lack of association between interleukin-12 gene polymorphism (rs568408 g/a) and susceptibility to chronic hepatitis b virus infection

introduction: hepatitis b is a potentially life-threatening infection that causes acute infection and chronic hepatitis with progression to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc). interleukin-12 (il12) is responsible for activation of th1 immune responses, leading to possible clearance of hbv infection from the host’s body. the host’s immune-genetic background plays an important role in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. the aim of the present study was to investigate the association of interleukin 12a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs568408 g/a) with chronic hbv infection. methods: in this case-control study, 120 chronic hbv patients and 120 healthy controls were studied from 2013 to 2015. genotype analysis was performed using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (pcr-rflp) method. results: the genotype distribution of il12 rs568408 g/a was not significantly different between the chronic hbv patients and healthy controls. the frequency rates of the il12 gene polymorphism at position rs568408 included gg (64.2%), ag (33.3%), and aa (2.5%) in the hbv patients and gg (68.3%), ag (29.2%), and aa (2.5%) in healthy controls (p=0.728). conclusion: the results suggested no significant association between il12a rs568408 g/a genotypes and chronic hepatitis b virus infection.