Association of adipocytokine IL-1A and IL-6 genes with intramuscular fat content and fatty acid composition in pigs.

Several adipocytokines are involved in inflammatory and immune responses as well as regulated fat deposition and lipid metabolism in mammals. This study aimed to verify the polymorphisms of the porcine interleukin 1A (IL-1A) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) genes and to assess their association with intramuscular fat (IMF) content and fatty acid (FA) composition in commercial crossbred pigs. Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the porcine IL-1A g.43722547A>G and IL-6 g.91508173C>T loci were found to be segregating in these crossbred pigs. Furthermore, the porcine IL-1A g.43722547A>G polymorphism was found to be significantly associated with myristic, palmitic, palmitoleic, and eicosadienoic acid levels. Moreover, the porcine IL-6 g.91508173C>T polymorphism was significantly associated with IMF content and homolinolenic acid levels. These results suggest that the polymorphisms of the porcine IL-1A and IL-6 genes correlated with lipid content and FA composition and confirmed the importance of the adipocytokine IL-1A and IL-6 genes as candidate genes for fatty acid composition in the muscles of pigs.