Abstract
Asthma is an inflammatory disease of the lower airway and the most common chronic disease in childhood. Interleukin 9 (IL-9), as a proinflammatory cytokine, has major effects on both proliferation and function of the immune cells, whereas its gene is located on 5q31-q32 which is consistent with the previously identified susceptibility loci for asthma. This study was performed to analyze the association between rs2069882, an intronic gene variant in the IL9 gene, and IL-9 serum levels and susceptibility to pediatric asthma. Sixty-one children with asthma and 63 healthy pediatric controls participated in this study. We determined allele frequencies of rs2069882 in IL9 gene, using real-time polymerase chain reaction assay, while serum levels of IL-9 were measured in 45 asthmatic patients and 45 healthy subjects, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. There was no significant association between different alleles of rs2069882 and susceptibility to asthma and its severity. Serum levels of IL-9 were significantly higher in patients group. Patients with TT and TC genotypes in rs2069882 had significantly higher levels of IL-9. In addition, patients with severe asthma had significantly higher serum IL-9 levels. Although there was not any significant association between different alleles of rs2069882 and susceptibility to asthma, this study showed that genotypes in this single nucleotide polymorphism can influence the serum levels of IL-9 in asthmatic patients, which in turn can influence its severity.
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