IL-8 gene polymorphism in acute biliary and non biliary pancreatitis: probable cause of high level parameters?

BACKGROUNDS/AIMS: Inflammatory mediators of the innate immune response play fundamental roles in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis. The correlation between interleukin-8 (IL-8) gene polymorphism with types of acute pancreatitis and severity of pancreatitis, was evaluated in this study. METHODS: According to the diagnostic criteria, 176 patients with acute pancreatitis were grouped into biliary (n=83) and nonbiliary pancreatitis (n=93). Healthy blood donors (n=100) served as controls. Serum alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, total and direct bilirubin, amylase, lypase, white blood cell count and c-reactive protein levels were evaluated to correlate with IL-8 rs4073 (-251T/A) polymorphism, which was analyzed using a real-time polymerase chain reaction method with melting point analysis. RESULTS: The IL-8 AA genotype was detected with a significantly higher frequency among the patients with acute biliary pancreatitis having higher alanine transaminase levels than the median range. Homozygote alleles were significantly higher among patients with acute biliary pancreatitis having amylase levels higher than the median range. CONCLUSIONS: Determination of the frequency of IL-8 polymorphism in acute pancreatitis is informative and provides further evidence concerning the role of IL-8 in laboratory tests.