Genetic polymorphism within the interleukin-10 gene promoter in patients with severe sepsis

Objective:To investigate whether three biallelic polymorphisms at the position 592,819 and1082 in the promoter region of the IL10 gene were associated with the incidence and outcome of severe sepsis.Methods:The IL10 592,819 and 1082 polymorphisms were typed by polymerase chain reaction followed by digestion with the RsaⅠ,MaeⅢ and MnlⅠ restriction enzyme respectively.Results:Patients with severe sepsis had a significant elevation of IL10 1082 allele 1 compared with that in controls (59.9% vs.50.4%,P0.05).Genotype distribution of the IL101082 polymorphism significantly differed between patients and controls (P0.05).However,the allele frequencies and genotype distribution of the IL10 1082 polymorphism did not differ between surviving and nonsurviving patients (P0.05).No significant differences in the genotype distribution and allele frequencies of the IL10 592 and IL10 819 polymorphisms were observed between patients with severe sepsis and healthy controls,and between surviving and nonsurviving patients (P0.05).Conclusions:The polymorphism at position 1082 in the promoter region of the IL10 gene may be associated with the susceptibility to severe sepsis.In contrast,the additional two high linked IL10 polymorphisms are neither associated with the incidence nor with the outcome of severe sepsis.