Association of 137 Polymorphism in the Interleukin-18 Gene Promoter with Diabetes Melhitus Type 1 in East Azerbaijan Population

Interleukin-18 (IL-18) plays a key role in autoimmunity، inflammation and infection diseases and its higher levels are reported during the subclinical stage of type 1 diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to evaluate the recently described single-nucleotide-polymorphisms of promoter of IL-18 gene at position-137، in type 1 diabetic patients، which has been suggested to cause differences in transcription factor binding and IL-18 gene activity. In this study، 104 type 1 diabetic patients (33female and 71 male) with mean age of 19. 6 10. 4 years، and 92 ages and sex matched، healthy individuals without family history of diabetes and autoimmune diseases were selected as controls. The single- nucleotide-polymorphism (SNP) at position-137 (G/C) in the promoter region of IL-18 gene was analyzed by sequence-specific PCR. The genotype distribution differed significantly between patient and controls (p=0. 038). The difference reflected as an increase in The GG genotypes at position-137 in promoter of IL-18 gene. The results of these studies suggest an association between type 1 diabetes and polymorphisms in the promoter region of IL-1