ABSTRACT
In end stage renal disease, inflammation is considered a critical regulator of atherosclerotic plaque formation and progression, to which many dialysis and non-dialysis-related factors may contribute. Since circulating inflammatory cytokine levels vary inter-individually, one may speculate that genetic factors, such as polymorphisms in genes encoding them, may be involved in determining the individual inflammatory reaction in response to a given insult. The present work aimed to study interleukin-1B [-511C/T], and interleukin-6 [-174G/C] gene polymorphisms and their possible association with atherosclerosis in Egyptian patients with end stage renal disease on maintenance haemodialysis. The present study was conducted on 100 Egyptian subjects, the control group [n = 30] and the patient group [n = 70] with end stage renal disease on maintenance haemodialysis which were further subdivided into two subgroups with [n = 33] and without atherosclerosis [n = 37] as evidenced by CIMT, ECG ischaemic changes, cerebrovascular insufficiency [CVI], and peripheral vascular insufficiency [PVI]. All studied subjects were subjected to detailed history taking, routine laboratory investigations and molecular studies including detection of IL-1B [-511C/T] and IL-6 [-174G/C] gene polymorphisms using the Polymerase chain reaction/Restriction fragment length polymorphism [PCR/RFLP] technique. The genotype distribution and allele frequency of IL-1B [-511C/T] and IL-6 [-174G/C] showed no statistical significant difference among the studied groups. To conclude the development of atherosclerosis among Egyptian patients on maintenance haemodialysis cannot be attributed to these two gene polymorphisms