Association of Promoter Genetic Variants in Interleukin-10 and Kawasaki Disease With Coronary Artery Aneurysms

Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute, self-limited vasculitis in infants and young children. Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is a potent cytokine that exerts pleiotropic effects on immunoregulation and inflammation. Elevated IL-10 serum levels have been reported in the KD patients. Methods: In this study, we investigated whether IL-10 genetic polymorphisms contribute to coronary artery aneurysm (CAA) development among KD patients in Taiwan. A total of 58 KD patients with CAA and 277 unrelated healthy children matched for sex and age were enrolled for this study. Results: Higher G allele frequencies of IL-10 at -1082 position were observed in KD patients with CAA compared to the controls (P = 0.016, OR: 2.86, 95% CI, 1.17–6.98). In addition, higher IL-10 GCC haplotype frequencies were also observed in KD patients with CAA (P = 0.016, OR: 2.85, 95% CI, 1.17–6.98). Conclusion: Our data support the possibility that IL-10 gene polymorphisms may be related with CAA development of KD in Taiwanese population.