association between interleukin-8 -251t/a polymorphism and endometriosis in iranian women

Background: endometriosis is a disease of female genital system, which is defined by the presence of ectopic endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity. il-8 is an autocrine growth factor in the endometrium that contributes to the pathogenesis of endometriosis. the aim of this study was to investigate the association between -251t/a polymorphism in the il-8 gene and risk of developing endometriosis in iranian population. materials and methods: this case-control study was performed in 100 endometriosis patients and 100 healthy individuals. the il-8 -251t/a genotypes were determined using pcr-rflp method. the association between genotypes of the -251t/a polymorphism and the risk of developing endometriosis was examined by odds ratios (or) and 95% of confidence intervals (cis). results: no statistically significant associations were observed between il-8 -251 variants and the risk of developing endometriosis (χ2: 1.02, p: 0.63). in addition, subgroup analysis (according to severity of disease) were unable to identify any association between il-8 -251t/a polymorphism and endometriosis (p>0.05). conclusions: to our knowledge this is the first study investigating the association between -251t/a polymorphism and risk of developing endometriosis. our results indicate that the presence of the -251t/a polymorphism in il-8 gene is not associated with the risk of endometriosis.