Cytokine single nucleotide polymorphisms in patients' with gallstone: dose TGF-β gene variants affect gallstone formation?

Gallstone is a common biliary disorder with several risk factors. Immune responses and inflammatory cytokines are important in this disease; as a result, some cytokines can be detected in bile fluid. In this research, cytokine gene polymorphisms were studied, and their effects on gallstone formation were evaluated. On 158 gallstone patients and 254 normal subjects, by PCR- RFLP method, IL-4-C590T polymorphism and by ARMS-PCR method, IFN-γ T+874A, TNF-α-A308G, IL-6 G-174C and TGF-β T+869C variants were studied. Pathologic evaluations were done on surgical specimens. There were no significant differences in distribution of evaluated polymorphisms between patient group and normal control group (P > 0.05), except TGF-β +869T allele (P = 0.04, OR = 1.23, 95 % CI = 1-1.79) which was higher in patients with gallstone. Although the pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α and IL-6 may promote gallstone formation, in this study no significant correlation between TNF-α and IL-6 polymorphisms and gallstone formation was seen. It is taught that TGF-β may affect gallbladder cells to promote gallstone formation and higher producer TGF-β +869T allele can be a risk factor of gallstone disease, so further studies would be more elucidative