Association analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms of proinflammatory cytokine and their receptors genes with rheumatoid arthritis in northwest Chinese Han population

► 16 SNPs of Cytokine genes were genotyped using high resolution melting technology. ► A case-control study was performed on the 16 SNPs in Chinese Han population. ► The SNPs of TNFA-308 and TNFA-863 are closely associated with RA susceptibility. ► Gene interactions may occur among IL1B-31, IL1RN, IL6-572, IL6R-183, IL6R-exon1 and TNFA-857. ► The three kinds of genotypes consisted of six SNPs show high risk to RA occurrence..