Abstract
Objective: Some studies suggest that immunological components play a key role in the development of various cancers like gastric, cervical and ovarian cancers. Polymorphism in the IL-1 Ra gene has been reported to be associated with different malignant diseases. There are however, inadequate data for prostate cancer (CaP) till date.
Methods: In a case control study we analyzed the polymorphism of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) in 110 men with CaP; 92 with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and 128 normal healthy controls. Genomic DNA fragments were amplified by polymerase chain reaction and visualized on 2% agarose gel.
Results: The distributions of genotype and allele frequencies were significantly different between the CaP, BPH patients and the control group. In CaP and BPH patients Type B/B (410 bp) genotype is significantly dominant (51.8 and 54.3 vs. 28.9%) with greater than 3-fold risk. Type A/A (240 bp) genotype is dominant (48.4 vs. 14.5 and 19.6%) in normal controls. Allele D (325 bp) and E (595 bp) was completely absent in our study groups. There was no significant association between Gleason grade of CaP patients and frequency of different genotypes.
Conclusions: Our data suggests that IL-1Ra gene polymorphism is directly implicated in the susceptibility but not in the clinical course of patients with CaP and BPH. Furthermore, it also suggests that Type B (410) allele acts as a risk factor for CaP as well as for BPH. The mechanism of this association, however, still remains a matter of speculation. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings and to elucidate the role of IL1-Ra gene polymorphism for the risk of CaP and BPH.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the HOD Urology for providing the necessary facilities. D.K. Mishra and H.K. Bid are thankful to Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, and Indian council of Medical Research, New Delhi for awarding junior and senior research fellowships, respectively.