Association between interleukin 6 and interleukin 16 gene polymorphisms and coronary heart disease risk in a Chinese population

Objective: To investigate the role of interleukin 6 (IL6) and IL16 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in coronary artery disease (CAD) risk in a Chinese population. Methods: Patients with CAD and healthy control subjects were recruited. IL6 (rs1800795 and rs1800796) and IL16 (rs8034928, rs3848180, rs4577037, rs1131445, rs4778889 and rs11556218) genotyping was performed on the MassARRAY (R) platform (Sequenom (R), San Diego, CA, USA). Results: Frequencies of rs8034928 variant C allele and rs11556218 variant T allele were higher in patients with CAD (n=326) than controls (n=341). The rs8034928 C/C genotype (odds ratio [OR] 2.03; 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.16, 3.62) and C allele (OR 1.97; 95%CI 1.15, 3.45) were associated with increased risk of CAD compared with wild type. Similarly, the rs11556218 T/T genotype (OR 2.44; 95%CI 1.15, 5.44) and T allele (OR 2.37; 95%CI 1.13, 5.24) were associated with increased CAD risk compared with wild type. Conclusion: The SNPs rs8034928 and rs11556218 are associated with CAD risk in the Chinese population, and may be useful predictive markers for CAD susceptibility.