<p>This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> <p>Two polymorphisms in the <italic>IL4</italic> (G/C 3′-UTR) and <italic>IL5</italic> (C-703T) genes were studied in a sample of families whose probands had atopic bronchial asthma (BA) (66 families,
n = 183) and in a group of non-cognate individuals with the severe form of the disease
(n = 34). The samples were collected from the Russian population in the city of Tomsk
(Russia). Using the transmission/disequilibrium test (TDT), a significant association
of allele C-703 <italic>IL5</italic> with BA was established (TDT = 4.923, <italic>p</italic> = 0.007 ± 0.0007). The
analysis of 40 individuals with mild asthma and 49 patients with the severe form
of the disease revealed a negative association of genotype GG <italic>IL4</italic> (OR = 0.39, 95%
CI = 0.15−0.99, <italic>p</italic> = 0.035), and also a trend towards a positive association of the
GC <italic>IL4</italic> genotype (OR = 2.52, 95% CI = 0.98−6.57, <italic>p</italic> = 0.052) with mild BA. There
was a concordance of the clinical classification of BA severity with the ‘genotype’
(McNemar’s χ<sup>2</sup> test with continuity correction constituted 0.03, d.f. = 1, <italic>p</italic> = 0.859).
These results suggest that polymorphisms in the <italic>IL4</italic> and <italic>IL5</italic> genes contribute to the
susceptibility to atopic BA and could determine the clinical course of the disease.</p>
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Comp Funct Genomics. 2003 Jun; 4(3):346-350