Interleukin-6 gene polymorphisms in Egyptian children with febrile seizures: a case–control study

摘要

Background Febrile seizures are the most common form of childhood seizures. Among pro-inflammatory cytokines, interleukin-6 is the key acute-phase cytokine. To date, only a few studies concerned the association of interleukin-6 gene polymorphisms with febrile seizures.In this study, we aimed to investigate 3 cytokine single-nucleotide polymorphisms situated at positions –174 (G/C), –572 (G/C), and –597 (G/A) in the promoter region of the interleukin-6 gene for the first time in Egyptian children with febrile seizures. Methods This was a case–control study included 100 patients with febrile seizure, and matched with age, gender, ethnicity 100 healthy control subjects. Interleukin-6 –174 (G/C), ?572 (G/C), and ?597 (G/A) polymorphisms were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism ( PCR-RFLP ), while the serum IL6 levels were measured by ELISA method. Results Compared to the controls subjects, the frequency of the ?174 GG and ?597 GG IL6 genotypes were observed to be increased in children with febrile seizures (OR: 4.17; 95?% CI: 1.86–9.49; P ?0.05). Conclusion In conclusion, our data brought a novel observation that the presence of a G allele or GG genotype at the ?174 and the GG genotype at the ?597 positions of the promoter region of the interleukin-6 gene constitute risk factors for developing febrile seizures in Egyptian children. Moreover, we observed a significant positive association between the IL6 –597 GG genotype and susceptibility to complex febrile seizures as did the G allele at the same position. However, we found no association between IL6- genotypes and serum IL6 levels in patients with febrile seizures.