Association of Interleukin-10 promotor polymorphisms with atrial fibrillation in Han Chinese.

There is an accumulating body of evidence indicating strong association between inflammation and the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation (AF). IL-10 is a multifunctional anti-inflammatory cytokine that down-regulates cell-mediated immune responses and cytotoxic inflammatory responses. The aim of the present study is to investigate the association of IL-10 gene -592A/C polymorphism with AF in Han Chinese. 117 AF patients and 100 healthy volunteers were eligible for this study. The PCR-based restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique was used to assess the genotypes frequencies. The distribution of the IL-10 -592A/C genotypes (AA, AC, and CC) was 55.00%, 35.00%, and 10.00% in the controls, and 71.79%, 23.08%, and 5.13% in AF subjects, respectively (p = 0.0335). The frequency of the A allele in the AF group was significantly higher than that in the control group (83.33% vs 72.50%, p = 0.0063). Compared with the CC genotype, the AA genotype had increased risk of AF in both unadjusted and adjusted analyses. The average serum IL-10 levels in AA genotype were statistically lower than in AC + CC genotype (p = 0.0000). These findings suggest that IL-10 -592A/C polymorphism is associated with AF and the A allele has increased risk for AF in Han Chinese.