J. Eskdale et al., ASSOCIATION BETWEEN POLYMORPHISMS AT THE HUMAN IL-10 LOCUS AND SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS, Tissue antigens, 49(6), 1997, pp. 635-639
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.