ASSOCIATION BETWEEN POLYMORPHISMS AT THE HUMAN IL-10 LOCUS AND SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS

Recent studies have shown elevated IL-10 levels in several rheumatic a utoimmune diseases, and particularly in systemic lupus erythematosus ( SLE). Such changes may have a genetic basis. We studied two novel poly morphic dinucleotide repeats in the IL-10 promoter region (IL10.G and IL10.R) in order to investigate their possible significance in associa tion with this condition in a group of 56 Caucasian SLE patients compa red with 102 ethnically matched controls. The results show that there is an allelic imbalance between SLE patients and controls at the IL10. G microsatellite; this observation is supported by a significant diffe rence in genotype distribution. The nature of autoantibody production and the presence or absence of renal involvement also appeared to be a ssociated with certain IL10.G microsatellite alleles, although the sma ll size of individual clinical sub-groupings may have influenced this result. No association with the IL10.R microsatellite was observed. Ov erall, the differences observed at the IL1O.G microsatellite between S LE patients and controls suggest that the IL-10 locus contributes to t he genetic background important for the development of this disease. A lthough the moderate sample size described in this study requires that the results be interpreted carefully, they provide an interesting and useful framework for future study.