Association of Interleukin-13 Gene Polymorphism with Lymphoma in Pakistani Population

Abstract

The present study was cross sectional type. It was conducted to study the pattern and clinicopathological features of lymphomas and their subtypes in Pakistani population. As the association of TLR-2 and IL-13 with different cancer were reported previously in the literature, the present study was aimed to conduct the association of polymorphism of these genes (IL-13 2044 G/A and TLR-2 Arg677Trp) with susceptibility to lymphoma. A total of 85 lymphoma samples from Nuclear medicine oncology and radiotherapy institute (NORI) Islamabad were recruited for the study with 90 healthy controls during the period January to October 2013. PCR analysis followed by RFLP for IL-13 gene and for TLR-2 gene amplification Tetra-ARMS PCR was performed. Out of 85 lymphoma patients majority of the cases were of NHL (71%) as compared to HL (29%). Among NHL, DLBCL was most common subtype (80%). Among HL, MC was most prevailing condition (88%). Male were most commonly affected (male/female ratio was 1.5). NHL was most commonly found at age of 41-50 years while HL shows peak incidence at age of 11-20 years. Majority of the patients were of low Socio-economic status. Nodal involvement was common (74.11%) for both disease, with most commonly affected nodal site was cervical. Most common EN-NHL site was stomach and tonsil. Majority of the N-NHL patients present at stage I and III while EN-NHL at stage I and IV. N-HL patients mostly diagnosed at stage I and IV while EN-HL patients commonly diagnosed at stage II and III. Symptom A was present in majority of the cases of NHL and HL. In majority of NHL and HL patients LDH level was ≤ 520 mg/dl. Regarding IL-13 2044 G/A polymorphism genomic frequency shows no significant association in lymphoma patients (χ 2 =2.869, p-value 0.23) and also in DLBCL patients (χ 2 =3.141, p-value 0.201). Similarly no significant association of TLR-2 Arg677Trp polymorphism was found in lymphoma patients [χ 2 =0.433, p- value 0.51] as well as in DLBCL patients [χ 2 = 0.024, p-value 0.875]. However allelic frequency shows one fold risk for development of lymphoma in patients having IL-13 2044G/A polymorphsim and it also shows significant association of G allale with DLBCL. In conclusion it was found in the present study that genomic frequencies of both IL- 13 2044G/A and TLR-2 Arg677Trp polymorphisms shows no significance association with susceptibility to lymphoma and also to subtype DLBCL. However, IL-13 polymorphisms show one fold risk for the development of lymphoma and its allaelic frequency analysis also shows significant association of G allale with DLBCL.