Skip to main content
Gut logoLink to Gut
. 1996 Nov;39(5):705–710. doi: 10.1136/gut.39.5.705

Cytokine gene polymorphisms in inflammatory bowel disease.

E Louis 1, J Satsangi 1, M Roussomoustakaki 1, M Parkes 1, G Fanning 1, K Welsh 1, D Jewell 1
PMCID: PMC1383395  PMID: 9014770

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Concordance rates in siblings and twins provide strong evidence that genetic susceptibility is important in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease. The number and identity of susceptibility genes is largely uncertain. Cytokine genes are attractive candidate loci. AIMS: To study allelic frequencies of polymorphisms of the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) gene and the tumour necrosis factor alpha gene in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. SUBJECTS: One hundred and twenty nine North European caucasoid patients with ulcerative colitis, 120 patients with Crohn's disease, and 89 healthy controls. METHODS: Genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction. A variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) in the IL-1RA gene and a single base pair polymorphism in the TNF alpha gene promoter region (TNF-308) were analysed. RESULTS: No significant differences in IL-1RA VNTR allelic frequencies were noted between Crohn's disease (allele 1: 72.6%, allele 2: 24.7%, allele 3: 2.6%), ulcerative colitis (72.6%, 24.3%, 3.1%, respectively), and controls (76.9%, 20.8% and 2.3%). Some 42.4% of patients with ulcerative colitis and 43.4% patients with Crohn's disease were carriers of allele 2, compared with 34.8% healthy subjects. The TNF2 allele was modestly reduced in Crohn's disease (13.2%), compared with healthy subjects (21.3%; p = 0.04), and ulcerative colitis (21.6%). CONCLUSIONS: The associations demonstrated are modest: these polymorphisms are unlikely to be important determinants of overall disease susceptibility.

Full text

PDF
705

Images in this article

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Asakura H., Tsuchiya M., Aiso S., Watanabe M., Kobayashi K., Hibi T., Ando K., Takata H., Sekiguchi S. Association of the human lymphocyte-DR2 antigen with Japanese ulcerative colitis. Gastroenterology. 1982 Mar;82(3):413–418. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Brinkman B. M., Zuijdeest D., Kaijzel E. L., Breedveld F. C., Verweij C. L. Relevance of the tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) -308 promoter polymorphism in TNF alpha gene regulation. J Inflamm. 1995;46(1):32–41. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bunce M., Taylor C. J., Welsh K. I. Rapid HLA-DQB typing by eight polymerase chain reaction amplifications with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP). Hum Immunol. 1993 Aug;37(4):201–206. doi: 10.1016/0198-8859(93)90502-r. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Casini-Raggi V., Kam L., Chong Y. J., Fiocchi C., Pizarro T. T., Cominelli F. Mucosal imbalance of IL-1 and IL-1 receptor antagonist in inflammatory bowel disease. A novel mechanism of chronic intestinal inflammation. J Immunol. 1995 Mar 1;154(5):2434–2440. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Danis V. A., Millington M., Hyland V. J., Grennan D. Cytokine production by normal human monocytes: inter-subject variation and relationship to an IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) gene polymorphism. Clin Exp Immunol. 1995 Feb;99(2):303–310. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2249.1995.tb05549.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Duerr R. H., Neigut D. A. Molecularly defined HLA-DR2 alleles in ulcerative colitis and an antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-positive subgroup. Gastroenterology. 1995 Feb;108(2):423–427. doi: 10.1016/0016-5085(95)90069-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Mansfield J. C., Holden H., Tarlow J. K., Di Giovine F. S., McDowell T. L., Wilson A. G., Holdsworth C. D., Duff G. W. Novel genetic association between ulcerative colitis and the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 receptor antagonist. Gastroenterology. 1994 Mar;106(3):637–642. doi: 10.1016/0016-5085(94)90696-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. McGuire W., Hill A. V., Allsopp C. E., Greenwood B. M., Kwiatkowski D. Variation in the TNF-alpha promoter region associated with susceptibility to cerebral malaria. Nature. 1994 Oct 6;371(6497):508–510. doi: 10.1038/371508a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Nedospasov S. A., Udalova I. A., Kuprash D. V., Turetskaya R. L. DNA sequence polymorphism at the human tumor necrosis factor (TNF) locus. Numerous TNF/lymphotoxin alleles tagged by two closely linked microsatellites in the upstream region of the lymphotoxin (TNF-beta) gene. J Immunol. 1991 Aug 1;147(3):1053–1059. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Satsangi J., Jewell D. P., Rosenberg W. M., Bell J. I. Genetics of inflammatory bowel disease. Gut. 1994 May;35(5):696–700. doi: 10.1136/gut.35.5.696. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Satsangi J., Welsh K. I., Bunce M., Julier C., Farrant J. M., Bell J. I., Jewell D. P. Contribution of genes of the major histocompatibility complex to susceptibility and disease phenotype in inflammatory bowel disease. Lancet. 1996 May 4;347(9010):1212–1217. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(96)90734-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Tarlow J. K., Blakemore A. I., Lennard A., Solari R., Hughes H. N., Steinkasserer A., Duff G. W. Polymorphism in human IL-1 receptor antagonist gene intron 2 is caused by variable numbers of an 86-bp tandem repeat. Hum Genet. 1993 May;91(4):403–404. doi: 10.1007/BF00217368. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Toyoda H., Wang S. J., Yang H. Y., Redford A., Magalong D., Tyan D., McElree C. K., Pressman S. R., Shanahan F., Targan S. R. Distinct associations of HLA class II genes with inflammatory bowel disease. Gastroenterology. 1993 Mar;104(3):741–748. doi: 10.1016/0016-5085(93)91009-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Tysk C., Lindberg E., Järnerot G., Flodérus-Myrhed B. Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease in an unselected population of monozygotic and dizygotic twins. A study of heritability and the influence of smoking. Gut. 1988 Jul;29(7):990–996. doi: 10.1136/gut.29.7.990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Verjans G. M., Brinkman B. M., Van Doornik C. E., Kijlstra A., Verweij C. L. Polymorphism of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) at position -308 in relation to ankylosing spondylitis. Clin Exp Immunol. 1994 Jul;97(1):45–47. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2249.1994.tb06577.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Weissenbach J., Gyapay G., Dib C., Vignal A., Morissette J., Millasseau P., Vaysseix G., Lathrop M. A second-generation linkage map of the human genome. Nature. 1992 Oct 29;359(6398):794–801. doi: 10.1038/359794a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Wilson A. G., de Vries N., Pociot F., di Giovine F. S., van der Putte L. B., Duff G. W. An allelic polymorphism within the human tumor necrosis factor alpha promoter region is strongly associated with HLA A1, B8, and DR3 alleles. J Exp Med. 1993 Feb 1;177(2):557–560. doi: 10.1084/jem.177.2.557. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Gut are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES