Lack of Association between Interleukin 12 C(-1188)A Polymorphism and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (ibs) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder, characterized by recurrent abdominal pain and altered bowel habits. this study was performed to investigate the important role of interleukin-12 (il-12) in intestinal inflammation. for this study seventy one patients with ibs and140 controls were investigated. the allele and genotype frequencies of il-12 c(-1188)a were determined using polymerase chain reaction with sequencespecific primers. the allele a was more common that the allele c in both groups of patients and controls. there was not any significant difference on il-12 alleles and genotypes between patients and controls. the aa genotype wasthe most common genotypes, which was seen in 57.4% of the patients and 51.4% of the controls (p=0.53). although frequency of the cc genotype in the control group was lower than the patient group, this difference was not significant (5.7% vs. 11.5%, respectively, p=0.16). considering the lack of association between il-12 c(-1188)a polymorphism and ibs, this cytokine gene polymorphismmay not have significant role in the pathophysiology of disease.