IL-10 and TNF-alpha Gene Polymorphisms in Patients with Celiac Disease

Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by intolerance to ingested gluten. HLA-DQ genes are strongly associated with susceptibility to CD. Non-HLA genes are effective in CD pathogenesis as well as HLA genes. TNF-alpha has a single nucleotidepolymorphism (SNP) at position -308 in promoter region, which has been shown to have association with CD in previous studies. The aim of this study is to investigate the association of TNF-alpha and IL-10 cytokine gene polymorphisms with CD and with DQB1*02 status in patients with celiac disease. Thirty three patients and 93 healthy individuals were included in the present study. GG and AA genotypes in position -308 of TNF-alpha gene had a significantly increased frequency in the patient group and in patients with DQB1*02 when compared to the controls. No significant differences could be established for IL-10 gene polymorphisms within the patients and controls. As a result of all these findings, it might be suggested that there is no significant association of IL-10 gene polymorphism with CD and data on TNF-alpha gene polymorphisms are not sufficient enough to clarify the disease pathogenesis thus indicating roles for other genes within or out of MHC gene region.