الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is considered a major global public health problem. The genetic background may be a crucial etiologic factor in HBV infection and its complications. Interleukin-27 (IL-27) is a newly discovered cytokine encoded by 2 genes (EBI3 and p28). Mutations in IL-27 gene may lead to altered cytokine production and/or activity and thus modulate individual’s susceptibility to HVB infection. This work was designed to study the association of IL-27p28 (−964A/G, 2905T/G and 4730T/C) gene promoter single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) with the risk of HBV in Egyptians. One hundred and sixteen patients with HBV infection and 101 healthy controls were genotyped by using polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR/RFLP) in Egyptian population. There were no significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies of IL-27p28 gene polymorphisms between patients and controls. Furthermore, no association was found between the distributions of the haplotypes and HBV risk. However, there was significant difference in demographic and biochemical characteristics of HBV patients and healthy controls. Our data suggested that polymorphisms in the IL-27 gene may not contribute to HBV susceptibility. Further studies with large sample size should be conducted to validate these results in Egyptian population.