[Association of IL-8 gene polymorphisms with inflammatory bowel disease in Chinese patients].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of interleukin 8 (IL-8) gene polymorphisms with the risks of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). METHODS: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of IL-8 gene at -845 T/C, -738 T/A, -353 A/T, -251 T/A and +678 T/C were analyzed in 183 IBD patients. They included Crohn's disease (CD, n = 41), ulcerative colitis (UC, n = 142) and healthy controls (n = 160). The methods of polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) were employed. RESULTS: No association was observed between any of these five SNPs in IL-8 gene with the occurrence of IBD. A specific haplotype AAT (-353 A/T, -251 T/A & +678 T/C) was over-represented in UC cases when compared with controls (31.0% vs 23.7%, P = 0.046). But the distributions of this haplotype did not show significant difference between CD cases and controls. CONCLUSION: Our data support a significant but modest association between the AAT haplotype of IL-8 gene and UC (OR = 1.441, 95%CI 1.007 - 2.063).