Interleukin VII Receptor Gene Polymorphism in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Introduction: Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic disease of central nervous system. Disease is more common in young adults and females and causes neurologic symptoms and signs. Cytokine IL-7 is a 25– kDa glycoprotein that has an important role in Lymphopoiesis. Interleukin VII receptor gene has been identified to be associated with multiple sclerosis, so its assessment is important. Methods: We investigated 60 Iranian patients with clinically definite MS and 60 normal healthy controls with negative family history for MS. After blood sampling, DNA was extracted from the whole blood, then we used 2 sets of primers for promoter and exon 4 of IL-VII gene. These fragments were amplified by PCR technique and early screening was performed by SSCP technic in the presence of control samples. Then different patterns with control samples were sent for DNA sequencing. Results: We observed one SNP in promoter. Most of the alleles of the patients were homozygote. There were two 2 SNPs and two sequence variations in exon 4 as P.H165H and P.V138I, which has been submitted in European Bioinformatics Institute under the access number of FR863587. Conclusion: Further studies on control group will be required to reveal the effects of these SNPs on the ILVII-R α protein and they can probably be useed as a biomarker for early diagnosis of MS.