Abstract
Cytokines play an important role in the pathogenesis of acne vulgaris together with other genetic and environmental factors.
To check for the association of TNF-α and IL-10 gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility and severity of acne in Saudi patients.
Study subjects included 166 Saudi patients (65 males, 101 females) with acne vulgaris. Their mean age±SD was 21.6±5.1 years. These cases were compared to 390 unrelated healthy controls (208 males, 182 females) with a mean age±SD of 20.1±3.3 years. Cases were sub-grouped on the basis of their severity of acne affection into mild, moderate and severe groups. For all participants, genotypic variants of the TNF-α −308 G/A and IL-10 −1082 A/G genes were determined using the real time PCR technique.
Frequencies of genotypic variants of the TNF-α −308 polymorphism were significantly different in acne cases compared to controls. Further analysis showed that acne cases had significantly higher frequency of both the GG and AA homozygous forms than controls (73.8% vs. 63.6%, p=0.02, odds ratio=1.6). It was also interestingly noticed that the amount of GG homozygosity was notably higher among female cases than male ones (76.0% vs. 54.7%, p=0.006, odds ratio=2.6) whereas male cases had a higher frequency of AA and GA genotypes than female ones (9.4% and 35.9% vs. 4% and 20% respectively). Differences in the frequencies of IL-10 −1082 genotypic variants were statistically insignificant comparing cases to controls (p=0.3). On the other hand, comparing cases-subgroups in terms of the age of onset of the disease, consanguinity, family history, obesity and acne severity; no statistical significance was observed regarding frequencies of genotypic variants related to the both TNF-α −308 and IL-10 −1082 polymorphisms (>0.05).
TNF-α −308 polymorphic variants might be a predisposing factor for acne susceptibility, with no apparent relation to its severity whereas IL-10 −1082 variants showed no association with both acne susceptibility and severity.