Investigation of functional gene polymorphisms IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α in individuals with recurrent aphthous stomatitis

Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is characterized by recurrent episodes of oral ulceration in an otherwise healthy individual. Some reports in the literature indicate that RAS may have immunological, psychological, genetic and microbiological bases.ObjectiveThe purpose of the present study was to investigate, using binary logistic regression analyses, a possible association between the functional IL-1β +3954 (C/T), IL-6 −174 (G/C), IL-10 −1082 (G/A) and TNF-α −308 (G/A) genetic polymorphism and RAS in a sample of Brazilian patients, using a multivariate statistical analysis.DesignSixty-four consecutive subjects affected by minor and major forms of RAS and 64 healthy volunteers were genotyped. To investigate the association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms and risk of RAS, binary logistic regression models were fitted. The associations were expressed by odd ratios (ORs) and adjusted for age and gender, with the corresponding 95% CIs. P-values less than 0.05 were considered significant.ResultsA significant increase in the IL-1β and TNF-α heterozygous genotypes were associated with an increased risk of RAS development (OR 2.40 and 3.07, respectively), in the multivariate model.ConclusionOur findings demonstrate that polymorphisms of high IL-1β and TNF-α production were associated with an increased risk of RAS development. Our findings also give additional support to a genetic basis for RAS pathogenesis.