Analysis of IL10 haplotypes in primary Sjögren’s syndrome patients from Western Mexico: Relationship with mRNA expression, IL-10 soluble levels, and autoantibodies

Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) is an autoimmune disease characterized by lymphocytic infiltration of salivary and lacrimal glands. Interleukin-10 (IL-10) plays a role in autoimmune diseases by promoting B-cell activation and autoantibodies production. IL10-1082A > G, -819C > T, -592C > A polymorphisms and their haplotypes have been associated with IL-10 production. The aim of this study was to associate IL10 haplotypes with mRNA expression and soluble IL-10 levels with susceptibility to pSS in 111 Mexican patients and 111 healthy subjects (HS). Primary Sjögren’s syndrome patients showed high levels of sIL-10 (p = 0.0001 vs HS) correlating with anti-Ro and anti-La antibodies (p < 0.05). In addition, IL10 mRNA expression in pSS was higher than HS (0.8 vs 0.1, p = 0.1537). However, no difference was observed in sIL-10 levels between haplotypes. Patients carriers of GCC haplotype showed higher mRNA expression than ACC + ATA (1.4 vs 0.6, p = 0.2424) and high foci number (p = 0.04 vs ACC). Our results suggest a strong relationship of IL10 with pSS which is demonstrated by the increased mRNA expression and also high sIL-10 levels positively correlated with autoantibodies. Besides that, the GCC haplotype carriers expressed high mRNA. However, IL10 haplotypes were not associated with sIL-10 in pSS from Western Mexico which suggest that diverse biological factors may regulate the IL10 expression in pSS.