Genetic analysis of the IL8 gene polymorphism (rs4073) in generalized aggressive periodontitis.

Objectives: Interleukin (IL)-8 is an important chemokine for regulation of the inflammatory response. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) reference sequence (rs) 4073 in the IL8 gene has been shown to regulate IL-8 levels after stimulation with lipopolysaccharide. This study investigates the transmission pattern of the IL8 rs4073 risk allele A and its association with susceptibility to aggressive periodontitis (AgP) in families and in a case-control cohort of unrelated individuals from a Brazilian population.

Design: Genotyping was performed by standard polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism assay (PCR-RFLP) in 13 nuclear families and 184 unrelated subjects. Statistical analysis was performed using the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) for the family dataset and Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression modelling for the case-control dataset.

Results: TDT analyses did not detect evidence of over transmission of IL8 rs4073 alleles in affected and unaffected family members (allele T: 52%; allele A: 48%; p=0.2252). How expected, analyses of cases and unrelated controls showed a significant and inverse association of age with AgP; however, a lack of association between genotypes, ethnic groups and generalized AgP was observed.

Conclusions: The SNP (rs4073) was not associated with AgP in unrelated individuals and there is no evidence of over transmission of the alleles in families with AgP, from Brazilian individuals.