Study of Association between Interleukin 20 Polymorphism (Rs1518108) and Chronic Hepatitis C Infection

Chronic hepatitis C is a major concern for global health as it causes liver problems, cirrhosis and liver cancer. Immune factors have a determinant role in susceptibility to chronic infection or clearance of infection in body. As a defensive agent, cytokines are important factors of immune system, since they can activate immune response or inhibit virus replication directly. The aim of this study is the evaluation of interleukin 20 polymorphism (rs1518108) in hepatitis C patients. This survey was a case–control study. By using PCR-RFLP method, 105 patients and 135 controls were studied randomly. We used SPSS-16 software for statistical analysis. A significant association was found between polymorphism (rs1518108) of interleukin 20 and hepatitis C patients (p=0.035) (OR=2.283). The incidence of hepatitics C in males was observed five times more than that one females (p=0.01) (OR=5.18). In addition, no significant association between polymorphism of genotypes and liver harms (chronic and cirrhosis) was found in this study (p=0.362). Our findings show that variants of interleukin 20 polymorphism (rs1518108) in the population of the study are important factors for being affected by hepatitis C. The incidence of heterozygote allele CT was more than of homozygote genotype TT.