POLYMORPHISM WITHIN THE 2ND INTRON OF THE IL-1 RECEPTOR ANTAGONIST GENE IN PATIENTS WITH HEMATOPOIETIC MALIGNANCIES

Alleles of the IL-1 genes are associated with several autoimmune and i nflammatory diseases, where they tend to have a role in the severity o f the disease rather than in susceptibilty to the disease itself.(1) A llele 2 of the variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism in th e IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) gene was the first marker of the I L-1 cluster to be associated in this way with severity of chronic, sys temic and local inflammatory diseases. Because of the role that IL-1 a lso plays in the pathobiology of certain hematopoietic disorders, we a imed at examining the allelic distribution of the IL-1ra VNTR in leuke mias, lymphomas and related malignancies. While in patients with chron ic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), hairy cell leukemia (HCL), multiple mye loma (MM) and related disorders, primary acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and Hodgkin's disease (HD), the allel ic distribution of IL-1RN was comparable to that seen in healthy contr ol subjects, in a small group of patients with secondary AML the frequ ency of the IL-1RN(star)4 allele appeared to be significantly increase d.