2Deparment of Genetics, Ondokuz Mayis University Faculty of Veterinary, Samsun-Türkiye
3Deparment of Medical Genetics, Hitit University Faculty of Medicine, Çorum-Türkiye
4Deparment of Medical Biology, Amasya University Faculty of Medicine, Amasya-Türkiye
5Deparment of General Surgery, Bezmialem University Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul-Türkiye
6Deparment of Pathology, Ondokuz Mayis University Faculty of Veterinary, Samsun-Türkiye DOI : 10.5505/tjo.2022.3624 OBJECTIVE
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), with its low survival rates and increasing incidence, is due to various etiological factors including environmental, genetic, and epigenetic changes. Interleukin 6 (IL- 6) is a cytokine with both pro- and anti-inflammatory effects. Therefore, we investigated the possible association of the IL-6 gene variants with risk for OSCC in a Turkish cohort.
METHODS
This study included 42 patients with OSCC and 110 age-and gender-matched healthy controls. Three
variants (-174G/C [rs1800795], -572G/C (rs1800796), and -597G/A [rs1800797]) in the IL-6 promoter
region were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism
(PCR-RFLP) method.
RESULTS
There was a significant difference in the genotype and allele frequencies of the IL-6 -174G/C variant
between OSCC patients and controls. While the IL-6 -174G/C G/C genotype was higher in the
patient group than in the control group, the G/G and C/C genotypes were lower in the patients
compared to the control group (p=0.016, OR:0.653, 95% CI: 0.38-1.11). The genotype and allele distributions
of -572G/C and -597G/A variants of the IL-6 gene were not statistically different between
OSCC patients and the control group.
CONCLUSION
Our current investigation is focused on the role of variants of IL-6 gene on OSCC. To the best of our
knowledge, this study is the first study to evaluate the genotype and allele frequencies of IL-6 -174G/C,
-572G/C, and 597G/A variants in patients with OSCC in a Turkish population. The results support that
the IL-6 -174G/C variant may play an important role in susceptibility to OSCC in our population.