The-590C/T and-34C/T interleukin-4 promoter polymorphisms are not associated with atopic eczema in childhood

Susceptibility to the development of asthma and other atopic diseases is kn own to have a genetic component. To date, several studies have linked chrom osome 5q31 to asthma and atopy in human beings. This region harbors a clust er of cytokine and growth factor genes, IL-4 presenting as a prime atopy ca ndidate gene, inasmuch as it plays a pivotal role in the atopy pathway. Our approach was to identify polymorphisms within the promoter regions of IL-4 and test their association with atopic eczema. Polymorphisms were typed in a cohort of 76 small nuclear families and 25 triads with childhood atopic eczema. The genotypes were used to test for linkage in the presence of asso ciation with atopic eczema. A new polymorphism, -34C/T, was identified and studied with a known polymorphism, -590C/T. On its own, each polymorphism s howed no association with atopic eczema. The 2 polymorphisms were used to g enerate haplotypes, and a significant result was found for the -590C/-34C h aplotype. However, after Bonferroni correction for multiple testing, the as sociation became nonsignificant. Neither polymorphism predisposes to early- onset atopic eczema by itself, but suggestive linkage was found for the -59 0C/-34C haplotype in this study.