Tabriz University of Medical Sciences Medical Journal of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences 2783-2031 35 2 2013 06 05 Association of 137 Polymorphism in the Interleukin-18 Gene Promoter with Diabetes Melhitus Type 1 in East Azerbaijan Population 38 43 EN Mohammad Rahbani-Nabar Ali Rezaie Satter Bazzaz Naser Aghamohammad Zadeh Journal Article 2012 07 22 2012 09 04 Background and Objectives: Interleukin-18 (IL-18) plays a key role in autoimmunity, inflammation and infection diseases and its higher levels are reported during the subclinical stage of type 1 diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to evaluate the recently described single-nucleotide-polymorphisms of promoter of IL-18 gene at position-137, in type 1 diabetic patients, which has been suggested to cause differences in transcription factor binding and IL-18 gene activity. Material and Methods: In this study, 104 type 1 diabetic patients (33female and 71 male) with mean age of 19.6 10.4 years, and 92 ages and sex matched, healthy individuals without family history of diabetes and autoimmune diseases were selected as controls. The single- nucleotide-polymorphism (SNP) at position-137 (G/C) in the promoter region of IL-18 gene was analyzed by sequence-specific PCR. Results: The genotype distribution differed significantly between patient and controls (p=0.038). The difference reflected as an increase in The GG genotypes at position-137 in promoter of IL-18 gene. Conclusion: The results of these studies suggest an association between type 1 diabetes and polymorphisms in the promoter region of IL-18.