Objective: To study the contribution of the IL10 gene to the susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Methods: Analysis by fluorescent-semiautomated genotyping of a dinucleotide repeat located in the promoter region of the IL10 locus (microsatellite G).
Results: No significant difference was found in the frequencies of the microsatellite alleles of 330 Mexican patients with SLE compared to 368 controls from the same population. Two-point linkage analyses were carried out using 13 Mexican, 13 Swedish, and 8 Icelandic families with 2 or more cases with SLE. No linkage was revealed between IL10 and SLE, using a variety of parameter settings.
Conclusion: Our results do not support that the IL10 gene contributes to the susceptibility to SLE in the populations we studied.