Association of Skin Type with IL-6 Gene Polymorphism in Patients with Acne Vulgaris

Abstract

Acne vulgaris is chronic, multifactorial and the most common inflammatory skindisorder of the pilosebaceous follicles, occurring mostly during adolescence. It is characterized by non-inflammatory and inflammatory lesions. The most significant pathophysiologic factors influencing the acne development are abnormal hyper ductal keratinization, high level of secreted sebum, abnormal microbial flora i.e.Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) propagationandintense inflammatory response. Among five skin types oily skin is more susceptible for acne development as compared tocombination, sensitive, normal and dry skin. IL-6 is a cytokine with multiple functions and it is involved in inflammation and other immune responses. IL- 6 is thought to be involved in the acnepathogenesis. Numbers of single nucleotide polymorphisms have been discovered in human IL-6 gene, four of them are present in its promoter. The promoter polymorphism G/C at position -174, has been implicated in various inflammatory disorders like psoriasis vulgaris. Aim of this study was to determine IL-6 -174G/C polymorphism in patients with different skin types. Sixty five patients and seventy healthy controls were covered in this current study. In order to analyze the IL-6 gene (-174G/C) polymorphism present in promoter, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) were employed. NlaIII was used for restrictiondigestion.Genotypic and allelic frequency differences between acne patientsand healthy controls werestatistically not significant (P = 0.30, P = 1.00 respectively). Genotypic and allelic frequencies of acne patients with different skin types were compared and no association was found (P=0.38). Similarly, no link was observed between genotypes of IL-6 (-174) and the severity of acne (P = 0.38). In short, outcomes of this primary study conducted, suggest that IL-6 (-174G/C) promoter polymorphism is not associated with skin type of acne patients in Pakistani population.In future, further studies are required to delineate relationship between skin types and -174G/C IL-6 promoter polymorphism.