Objective: To assess the influence of interleukin-8 (IL-8), epithelial cell-derived neutrophil-activating peptide (ENA-78), and regulated upon activation normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES) gene polymorphisms in the susceptibility and clinical expression of patients fulfilling classification criteria for Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP).
Methods: Fifty patients (25 men) from Northwest Spain with primary cutaneous vasculitis classified as HSP according to proposed criteria were studied. All patients were required to have had at least 2 years' followup. Patients and ethnically matched controls were genotyped for IL-8, ENA-78, and RANTES gene polymorphisms.
Results: No allele or genotype differences between patients fulfilling HSP classification criteria and controls were observed for any of the chemokines. However, a significantly increased frequency of allele A of the IL-8 gene polymorphism was found in patients with HSP who developed renal manifestations compared with patients without renal involvement (p = 0.02; pcorr = 0.036). Moreover, the genotype distribution in HSP patients with and without renal involvement showed statistically significant differences (p = 0.02).
Conclusion: In unselected patients with cutaneous vasculitis, carriage of IL-8 allele A influences the susceptibility to renal involvement.