Interleukin-2 gene polymorphism is associated with renal but not cardiac transplant outcome

Transplant Proc. 2003 Jun;35(4):1344-5. doi: 10.1016/s0041-1345(03)00366-x.

Abstract

It was recently shown that IL-2 gene single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at position -330 (G-->T) is related to in vitro cytokine production levels, with the T/T and T/G genotypes being associated with low production and the G/G genotype associated with high production. The objective of this study was to investigate a possible influence of this polymorphism on renal and cardiac allograft outcomes. IL-2 SNP G-T (-330) was determined by PCR-RFLP in 67 recipients of heart allografts and in 63 recipients of renal grafts from HLA-haplo-identical, related donors. A higher frequency of the T/T genotype was observed in renal transplant patients who experienced at least one acute rejection episode during the first 3 months after transplantation than in those without rejection during this period (80% vs 49%, respectively, P <.05). Accordingly, the same genotype tended to be more frequent in renal recipients with a 6-month serum creatinine level above 1.5 mg/dL (median value for the whole group of kidney recipients) than in patients with lower creatinine levels (79% vs 45%, P <.08). Regarding cardiac transplant recipients, no associations were observed concerning acute rejection or graft survival. The finding of the association of T/T but not T/G genotype with acute kidney rejection was unexpected considering that both genotypes were shown to be associated with equal (low) IL-2 in vitro production. Further studies are necessary not only to dissect the nature of IL-2 T/T genotype association with kidney rejection, but also to explain why this genotype does not apparently influence cardiac allograft outcome.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acute Disease
  • Creatinine / blood
  • Genotype
  • Graft Survival / immunology
  • Heart Transplantation / immunology*
  • Histocompatibility Testing
  • Humans
  • Interleukin-2 / genetics*
  • Kidney Transplantation / immunology*
  • Phenotype
  • Polymorphism, Genetic*
  • Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide*
  • Time Factors
  • Treatment Outcome

Substances

  • Interleukin-2
  • Creatinine