Cytokine Gene Polymorphisms in Turkish Patients with Childhood Chronic Myeloid Leukemia.

Cytokines are necessary for normal hematopoiesis in the bone marrow and provide a means of fine-tuning bone marrow function in response to stimulation. Several of cytokines generated during both innate and adaptive immune responses stimulate the growth and differantiation of bone marrow progenitor cells. The vast majority of polymorphism found in cytokine genes and their reseptors are located in non coding regions. Cytokine gene polymorphism may be implicated in the pathogenesis of infections, autoimmun disease and malignancies via their effect on cytokine production and regulation. It is known that leukemic cells proliferate under the influence of cytokines.

Our aim is to analyze cytokine gene profiles in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)in order to clarify the pathogenesis of CML.

Genomic DNA from 26 CML patients were analysed. Genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) using “ One lamda” kit in 26 childhood CML patients 60 unrelated healthy individuals. Genotype frequencies between CML patients and controls were compared using Chi-Square Yates, Fisher’s Exact Tests. In this study; 26 CML patients with a mean age of 15,6±5,3 and 60 healthy controls with a mean age of 18,2±5,4 were investigated.

In CML patients the frequencies of TGF-b(TC/GG) genotype (in chi-square p=0,01,odds ratio(OR)=3,46, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1,3–9,04) and IL-10 (GCC/ATA) genotype (in chi-square p=0,04,OR=3,3, 95% CI 0,9–11,1 were found higher in patients with CML compared to the control group. On the other hand IL-6 (CC) genotype (in chi-square p=0,012,OR=0,17, 95% CI 0,4–0,76 frequency was found higher in the control group compared to the patients with CML.

As a conclusion higher frequency in TGF-b(TC/GG) and IL-10(GCC/ATA) genotype polymorphism were significantly higher in the patients with CML so it may predispose to CML. On the other hand IL-6 (CC) genotype might be the preventive factor for CML.

The present study is rather significant that it is the study which assessed the relation of the cytokines in patients with CML compared to the control group taken from the genetic pool of The Turkish population, we believe studies like this will eventually help to understand the pathogenesis of CML and the role cytokines play in CML,but larger groups of studies must be done in future.