Cytokine polymorphism frequencies in the Greek Cypriot population.

There is considerable evidence to suggest that several cytokine genes are polymorphic, resulting in differential transcription and protein expression levels among individuals. It has also been demonstrated that ethnicity can be a determinant for distinctive cytokine polymorphism frequencies. In this study, we evaluated the distribution of cytokine gene polymorphisms in 100 healthy Greek Cypriot subjects, using polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) typing analysis. Cytokine gene polymorphisms were determined for transforming growth factor (TGF) beta1 codon 10 (TGFbetac10; C to T), TGFbeta1 codon 25 (TGFbetac25; G to C), tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) promoter -308 (G to A), interleukin (IL)-6 promoter -174 (G to C), IL-10 promoter -1082 (G to A), IL-10 promoter -819 (C to T), IL-10 promoter -592 (C to A) and interferon gamma (IFNgamma) intron 1 +874 (A to T). Frequencies for the above cytokine genotypes were calculated for the Greek Cypriot population.