Interleukin-2 and Interferon-Gamma Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Iranian Patients With Chronic Heart Failure

Background: inflammatory cytokines have been known to be associated with chronic heart failure (chf). given the importance of cytokines in the context of the failing heart, the prevalence of interleukin-2 (il-2) and interferon-gamma (ifn-γ) polymorphisms was studied in patients with chf due to ischemic heart disease in a casecontrol study. methods: fifty-six iranian patients with chf were enrolled in this study as the case group and compared with 139 healthy subjects, using polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers method, so as to determine the frequency of alleles, genotypes and haplotypes of ifn-γ (+874 a/t) and il-2 (-330 g/t, +166 g/t) snps. results: the gg genotype at il-2 -330 in patients with chf was significantly overrepresented in comparison with the control group (p=0.013). such a positive genotypic association was also observed for il-2 +166/tt (p=0.022). meanwhile, the gt genotype frequency at il-2 -330/gt in the patient group was significantly lower than the one in healthy controls (p=0.049). no significant association was detected between the ifn-γ gene polymorphisms and individuals’ susceptibility to chf. conclusion: certain genotypes in il-2 gene were overrepresented in patients with chf, which could render individuals more vulnerable to this disease.