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Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist gene polymorphism in Taiwanese patients with gout

S.-F. Lo¹, C.-M. Huang², C.-H. Tsai⁶, M.-L. Chen⁴, F.-J. Tsai^3,4,5

¹Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; ²Division of Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine; ³Department of Pediatrics; and ⁴Department of Medical Genetics, China Medical University Hospital; ⁵College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung; ⁶Graduate Institute of Bioinformatics, Taichung Healthcare and Management University, Taichung, Taiwan.

ABSTRACT
Objective
The purpose of this study was to examine whether interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) gene polymorphism is a marker of susceptibility to or of the clinical characteristics of gout in Taiwanese patients.

Methods
196 Taiwanese patients with gout and 103 unrelated normal healthy control subjects living in central Taiwan were studied. Polymorphism of the gene for IL-1Ra was typed from genomic DNA. Allelic frequencies and carriage rates were compared between gout patients and control subjects. The relationship between IL-1Ra genotypes and the clinical characteristics of gout was also evaluated.

Results
No significant differences were observed in genetic and allelic frequencies of the IL-1Ra gene polymorphism between patients with gout and healthy control subjects. Furthermore, we did not detect any association of IL-1Ra genotype with the clinical and laboratory profiles in patients with gout.

Conclusion
The results from the present study suggest that the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist gene polymorphism is not a genetic marker of susceptibility to gout for Taiwanese. Furthermore, our study also suggests that the IL-1Ra gene polymorphism is unrelated to the clinical characteristics of gout.

Key words
IL-1 receptor antagonist, gout, gene polymorphism.

Please address correspondence to: Fuu-Jen Tsai, Department of Medical Genetics, China Medical University Hospital, No 2, Yuh Der Road, Taichung, Taiwan.
E-mail: d0704@www.cmuh.org.tw