IL-10 Promoter Genetic Polymorphisms and Risk of Kawasaki Disease in Taiwan

Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common cause of pediatric acquired heart disease. KD patients have spontaneously high plasma/serum levels of IL-10 during the acute phase. Therefore, two independent studies were carried out to investigate the association between genetic variants in IL-10 promoter (−1082, −819, and −592) and risk of KD. A total of 134 trios were included for the family-based association study. A significantly preferential transmission of the C allele at loci −819 T > C and −592 A > C for KD cases was observed (P(permutation) = 0.029 and P(permutation) = 0.034, respectively). There was a significant increase in the transmission of haplotype CC (p = 0.016) at the above two loci (OR, 1.632; 95% CI, 1.090–2.443; P(permutation) = 0.019). We also carried out a follow-up case-control study that included 146 KD cases and 315 unrelated healthy children. {The haplotype CC (−819, −592) showed an increased risk of KD (but statistically non-significant; OR, 1.332; 95% CI, 0.987–1.797; p = 0.061). In diplotype analysis, a trend was found between number of CC haplotype and risk of KD (but non-significant, p = 0.061). In conclusion, CC genotype and CC/CC diplotype at IL-10-819T > C and −592A > C were significantly associated with risk of KD in case-parent trio study, which were replicated partially in our follow-up case-control study.