ABSTRACT
Background: Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a pro-inflammatory cytokine is involved in various vascular pathologies including stroke. Till date, no studies have been reported for the association between IL-6 gene polymorphisms with the risk of Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Objective: The aim of this present case-control study was to investigate the association between IL-6 (-174 G/C and -572 C/G) gene polymorphisms and risk of ICH in North Indian population. Methods: Genotyping was carried out by using SNaPshot method for ICH patients and 100 age-sex matched ICH free controls. Conditional logistic regression analysis with adjusting multiple demographic and risk factor variables was used to calculate the strength of association between IL-6 (-174 G/C and -572 C/G) polymorphisms and risk of ICH. Results: Hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, smoking and low socioeconomic status were found to be associated with the risk of ICH. The distribution of -174 G/C and -572 C/G genotypes was consistent with Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) in the ICH and control subjects. Conditional logistic regression analysis showed a significant association between IL-6 -572 C/G gene polymorphism and the risk of ICH under dominant model (OR=3.7; 95%CI 1.05 to 13.1; p=0.004) and allelic model (OR=2.6; 95%CI 1.1 to 6.2; p=0.01). No significant association was observed for the association between IL-6 -174 G/C gene polymorphism and risk of ICH. Conclusion: Our results suggest that IL-6 (-572 C/G) polymorphism is significantly associated with the risk of ICH in North Indian population. Further prospective studies with large sample size are needed for independent validation.