The association of interleukin-1 alpha and interleukin-1 beta polymorphisms with the risk of Graves' disease in a case-control study and meta-analysis

The proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1 family has a central role in mediating inflammation and joint destruction in Graves' disease (GD). A number of studies, investigating rs1800587 (IL-1 alpha, T-889 C) and rs16944 (1L-1 beta, A-511 G) polymorphisms to test their possible association with GD and Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO), had inconsistent results. Our study aims to further evaluate the possible association of these two polymorphisms with GD and GO within the Han Chinese population using a case-control association study as well as a meta-analysis covering three previous studies from Taiwan, Iran, and Poland. Based on 760 Chinese GD patients, including 190 of GO cases among them, and 735 healthy control subjects, our data showed that the genotype or allele distributions of rs1800587 and rs16944 polymorphisms were significantly associated with GD (p = 0.003-0.049) and more so with GO (p = 0.001-0.021). The meta-analysis showed the risk-increasing effects for the TC and TT genotypes of rs1800587 in GD (odds ratio [OR] = 2.07, p = 0.03) and GO (OR = 3.22, p = 0.04), and a protective effect for the AA genotype of rs16944 in GD (OR = 0.70, p = 0.002) and GO (OR = 0.65, p = 0.02). The results confirmed that the rs1800587 (IL-alpha, T-889 C) and rs16944 (IL-1 beta, A-511 G) polymorphisms may confer susceptibility to GD and GO in Asian population. (C) 2010 American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.