Poster Presentations

Session Title: Inflammation
Presentation Date: Friday, March 14 – Saturday, March 15, 2009

INFLAMMATORY CYTOKINES INTERLEUKIN-10 AND INTERLEUKIN-1β GENE POLYMORPHISMS AND PARKINSON'S DISEASE IN ITALIAN PATIENTS

E. Pascale¹, C. Purcaro², E. Passarelli³, F. Passarelli¹, P. Stirpe², E. Di Battista², G. Meco^2
1University 'la Sapienza', Department of Experimental Medicine and Pathology, Rome, Italy, ²University 'la Sapienza', Department of Neurological Sciences, Rome, Italy, ³University 'la Sapienza', Rome, Italy

Parkinson´s disease (PD) is one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorders and is characterized by the progressive loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra. There is increasing evidence to suggest that the inflammatory response of the brain contributes to the pathogenesis of PD. Genetically determined differences in immune system responses, especially in proinflammatory cytokine genes, may influence the risk of idiopathic PD development and/or onset. In this study, we study two DNA gene polymorphisms, one at interleukin-10 (IL-10) promoter (-1082 G/A) and the other at interleukin-1β (IL-1β) promoter (-511 C/T), in Italian PD patients. Polymorphism at position -1082 of the IL-10 promoter results in varying levels of IL-10 protein, affecting the level of anti-inflammatory activity of IL-10. Conversely, polymorphism at position -511 of the IL-1β promoter results in varying levels of IL-1β proteins, affecting the level of pro-inflammatory activity of IL-1β. This study investigated the frequency of both IL-10 and IL-1β gene polymorphism in 135 idiopathic PD patients and 132 healthy controls. Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) methods are used for genotyping.