Association of IL10-1082 and IFN-γ+874 Polymorphisms with Cervical Cancer among Tunisian Women

Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of IL10-1082 and IFN-γ+874 polymorphisms in susceptibility to cervical cancer among Tunisian women. Study Design. The IL10-1082 and IFN-γ+874 polymorphisms were analyzed by ARMS-PCR in 160 healthy women and 122 with cervical cancer. The search for associations between those polymorphisms and cervical cancer was based on the test or Fisher's exact test. Results. The IFN-γ+874 polymorphism showed significant increased frequency of T allele in healthy controls compared with patients (OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.50–1.01, and ) and individuals with homozygote IFN-γ+874 T/T genotype were at lesser risk of cervical cancer (OR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.31–0.92, and ). However, carriers of allele have higher risk for developing cervical cancer (OR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.09–3.24, and ). At the polymorphic nucleotide in position 1082 of the IL10 promoter, no differences were found between patients and controls subjects. Conclusion. Our study shows that the T/T genotype polymorphism of IFN-γ+874 T>A is a protective factor for cervical cancer among Tunisian women. 1. Introduction Worldwide, cervical cancer (CC) is the second most common malignancy in women, with approximately 80% of cases arising in developing countries [1]. The major risk factor for this tumour is infection with specific high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) [2]. However, only a minority of women who have persistent infection with high-risk types of HPV develop CC. Therefore, other factors including genetics factors appear to play a role in the susceptibility and the development of cervical malignancy [3, 4]. Several studies have identified polymorphisms in cytokine gene regulatory regions that correlated with intraindividual variations in cytokine production [5, 6]. In addition, cytokine gene polymorphisms have been implicated in various human diseases [7], such as Epstein-Barr virus associated gastric carcinoma [8], Alzheimer's [9], and rheumatoid arthritis [10], and in patients presenting with severe sepsis after trauma [11], ovarian cancer [12] and the risk of CC [13–18]. One of the polymorphisms that are associated with low, medium, or high production of IL10 corresponds to an A to G transition which is situated in the promoter region of the gene at position 1082 (rs1800896) [19]. The T to A change in the +874 (rs2430561) position from the translation start site in the first intron of IFN-γ gene increases in vitro transcription of IFN-γ and may affect disease susceptibility [20]. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of