Interleukin 17F Gene Polymorphisms and Chronic Kidney Allograft Failure

Background and objectives: Polymorphisms of the interleukin (IL)-17 proinflammatory cytokine family (IL17A and IL17F) have been associated with kidney chronic allograft failure (CAF). To date, the impact of heritable differences in IL17F genes and CAF among kidney transplant patients from North America has not been reported. The objective of the study was to assess the association of five distinct polymorphisms in the IL17F gene with histopathological changes in chronic kidney allograft failure. Methods: Two hundred eighteen kidney transplant recipients were enrolled. Surveillance biopsies were performed to evaluate 11 distinct histological markers and the combined grade of interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy, 6 to 12 months post-transplant. Using direct sequencing, the IL17F polymorphisms (-1507C/T rs1889570, -1165A/G rs1266828, -5046C/T rs7771511, -6328G/A rs766748, and -7488A/G rs763780) were genotyped in the 10 healthy volunteer samples followed by all kidney transplant recipients were genotyped for five IL17F gene polymorphisms using polymerase chain reaction and sequence-specific primers. The association was evaluated using both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results: We observed weak associations of TC genotype of IL17F - 1165 (rs1266828) and allele of IL17F -1507C (rs1889570) with glomerular sclerosis and interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy ( p = 0.017 and p = 0.03) respectively. Allele C of IL-17 -1165C/T (rs1266828) was associated with better glomerular sclerosis ( p = 0.004, odds ratio = 0.39) score. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that IL17F SNPs were not associated with CAF and support our prior published results