Skip to content
2000
Volume 4, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 1389-2029
  • E-ISSN: 1875-5488

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death in today's society. Heart transplantation is the only available treatment for patients suffering from end-stage congestive heart failure (CHF). Causes underlying the development of CHF are still unknown, but it has been suggested that proinflammatory cytokines play an important role.In the context of transplantation, proinflammatory T-helper 1 cytokines like TNF-α and IL-2 that mediate the cellular immune response are believed to be involved in acute graft rejection. On the other hand, Th2 cytokines, like IL-4, IL-6 and IL-10, induce tolerance, by down-regulating the Th1 response and cytokine production. Cytokine release by macrophages, lymphocytes and other cell types in the microenvironment of the graft, especially the balance between Th1 and Th2, is thought to be critical for the development of acute rejection. Production of cytokines has been shown to be under genetic control of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in mainly the promoter regions of cytokine genes. Genotypes of these SNP were shown to control the differential production of these cytokines, leading to a wide variety of cytokine patterns among individuals. Since levels of these cytokines affect the Th1 / Th2 balance, genotypes may be related to acute allograft rejection. Many studies have shown an association between cytokine gene polymorphisms and the development of several infections, allergies and autoimmune diseases. Also, associations between SNP in different cytokine genes and transplant rejection have been extensively studied. In our lab, SNP in the genes of TNF-α, TGF-β, IL- 4 and IL-10 were studied in a panel of 70 cardiac transplant patients and 61 of their donors. These data are discussed in the context of literature data.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/cg/10.2174/1389202033490411
2003-04-01
2025-05-22
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/cg/10.2174/1389202033490411
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test