This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Chen, D. Articles by Lan, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Chen, D. Articles by Lan, J. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Association of interleukin-18 promoter polymorphisms with WHO pathological classes and serum IL-18 levels in Chinese patients with lupus nephritis

Department of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; Faculty of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Medical Technology, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

CW Hsieh

Department of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; Faculty of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Medical Technology, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

KS Chen

Department of Immunology and Rheumatology, Tung’s Taichung Metro Harbor Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

YM Chen

Department of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; Faculty of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

FJ Lin

Department of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; Institute of Clinical Nutrition, Hong-Kuang University, Taichung, Taiwan

JL Lan

Department of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; Faculty of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Medical Technology, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan jllan{at}vghtc.gov.tw

Accumulating evidence indicates that interleukin (IL)-18 has a central role in the pathogenesis of lupus nephritis (LN). Although two recent studies showed that IL-18 promoter gene polymorphisms might be associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), to our knowledge, there have not been any reports concerning their association with LN. The aim of our study was to investigate the association of IL-18 promoter polymorphisms with World Health Organization pathological classes and identify their functional correlations. Sequence-specific primer polymerase chain reaction and the restriction fragment length polymorphism method were used to analyse the genotypes of IL-18 promoter polymorphism at the position –607 in 101 unrelated patients with LN, 64 non-renal patients with SLE and 174 ethnically matched healthy controls. Serum IL-18 levels were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay during the active phase. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed for IL-18 expression on renal biopsies from 72 patients with LN. Our results showed that patients with non-renal SLE had significantly higher frequencies of SNP–607/AA when compared to patients with LN (37.5% vs 18.8%, P < 0.05). LN patients with the AA genotype had significantly lower levels of serum IL-18 than those with the CA or CC genotype (P < 0.01) and also had lower levels of glomerular IL-18 expression than those with the CC genotype (P < 0.05). Significantly, higher frequencies of the SNP–607/AA genotype were observed in LN patients with WHO class III than in those with class IV (34.6% vs 15.6%, P < 0.05). The SNP–607/AA genotype was not observed in patients with LN who progressed to end-stage renal failure that required haemodialysis or renal transplantation. In conclusion, the SNP–607/AA genotype that had lower IL-18 levels might be a genetically protective factor against renal involvement in Chinese patients with SLE and against development of severe nephritis in patients with LN.

Key Words: Chinese • interleukin-18 promoter polymorphisms • lupus nephritis • systemic lupus nephritis

Lupus, Vol. 18, No. 1, 29-37 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0961203308094559


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				E. Sanchez, R. J. Palomino-Morales, N. Ortego-Centeno, J. Jimenez-Alonso, M. A. Gonzalez-Gay, M. A. Lopez-Nevot, J. Sanchez-Roman, E. de Ramon, M. F. Gonzalez-Escribano, B. A. Pons-Estel, et al. Identification of a new putative functional IL18 gene variant through an association study in systemic lupus erythematosus Hum. Mol. Genet., October 1, 2009; 18(19): 3739 - 3748. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D.-Y. CHEN, Y.-M. CHEN, H.-H. CHEN, C.-W. HSIEH, C.-C. LIN, and J.-L. LAN Functional Association of Interleukin 18 Gene -607 (C/A) Promoter Polymorphisms with Disease Course in Chinese Patients with Adult-onset Still's Disease J Rheumatol, October 1, 2009; 36(10): 2284 - 2289. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]