RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To explore the association of the interleukin-10 (IL-10) gene -592 promoter polymorphism with endometriosis in a Korean population. METHODS: This study comprised 254 women with surgically or histologically diagnosed endometriosis, 236 control women with no evidence of endometriosis by laparoscopy or laparotomy. Following extraction of genomic DNA, genotyping of the IL-10 gene -592 polymorphism was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. RESULTS: The distribution of genotypes and allele frequencies of IL-10 gene -592 polymorphism in the endometriosis group did not differ from those in the control group (A/A: A/C: C/C, 41.3%: 51.2%: 7.5% vs. 44.9%: 50.8%: 4.2%). And when classified by stage, there was also no significant difference in the distribution of IL-10 gene -592 polymorphism between patients with stage I-II (ASRM, 1997) endometriosis or patients with stage III-IV endometriosis and controls. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that IL-10 gene -592 promoter polymorphism is not associated with the risk for endometriosis in the Korean women.