Non-association of IL-12 +1188 and IFN-γ +874 Polymorphisms with Cytokines Serum Level in Occult HBV Infected Patients

Abstract

Occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) is identified as a form of hepatitis in which despite the absence of detectable HBsAg, HBV-DNA is observed in peripheral blood of patients. The main aim of this study has been to investigate the association between polymorphisms in +874 of IFN-? and +1188 of IL-12 with their serum level in patients suffering from OBI. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, plasma samples of 3700 blood donors were tested for the presence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-HBc by ELISA. The HBsAg-/anti-HBc+ samples were selected and screened for HBVDNA by PCR. HBV-DNA positive samples were assigned as OBI cases and ARMS-PCR techniques were performed to examine the two known polymorphisms within IL-12 and IFN-?. In addition, the serum levels of IL-12 and IFN-? were also determined by ELISA. Results: Results of this study demonstrated that, 352 (9.5%) out of 3700 blood samples were HBsAg-/anti-HBc+ and HBV-DNA was detected in 57/352 (16.1%) of HBsAg-/anti-HBc+ samples. Our results showed that groups showed signifi cant difference in CC allele of +1188 region of IL-12 and no difference was observed in the other evaluated genes. Our results also showed that the alleles of +1188 region of IL-12 and alleles of +874 of IFN-? were also not associated with serum level of cytokines. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it may be concluded that the polymorphisms in +1188 region of IL-12 and +874 region of IFN-? would not affect the expression of both cytokines at serum level in OBI patients.