Association of IL27 gene polymorphisms and HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma risk in a Chinese population

摘要

Background and objective: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is multifactorial, and the genetic background may be a crucial etiologic factor. Interleukin-27 (IL-27) is a novel IL-12 family member which plays an important role in antitumor immunity. Mutations in the 1127 gene may lead to altered cytokine production and/or activity and thus modulate individual's susceptibility to HCC. In this study, we investigated the association between 1127 gem polymorphisms and HBV-related diseases risk in a Chinese population. Met/tods: Studied subjects were divided into four groups: 112 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), 65 patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related liver cirrhosis (LC), 107 patients with HBV-related HCC, and 105 healthy controls. The polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) strategy and polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific primer (PCR-SSP) strategy were used to detect IL27 gene -964A/G and 2905T/G polymorphisms, respectively. DNA sequencing wasused to validate genotype results. Results: There were no significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies of 1127 gene polymorphisms between the groups of patients and healthy controls. Furthermore, no association was found between the distributions of the haplotypes and HCC risk. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the genetic variants in 1L27 gene may not contribute to HCC development. Further studies with large sample size should be conducted to validate this association.