Investigation of functional gene polymorphisms: IL-1B, IL-6 and TNFA in benign migratory glossitis in Brazilian individuals

BACKGROUND: Benign migratory glossitis (BMG) is a very common immunological oral disease of unknown aetiology. METHODS AND SUBJECTS: Fifty-three consecutive subjects affected by BMG and 53 age- and sex-matched control subjects were genotyped for IL-1B, IL-6 and TNFA polymorphisms. Binary logistic regression models were fitted and values of P < 0.05 were considered significant. RESULTS: A significant difference in the distribution of IL-1B genotypes was observed in the group with BMG in univariate analyses (P = 0.01). The multivariate analyses showed that the CT genotype of the IL1-B gene was significantly associated with a high risk to develop BMG (P = 0.02, OR 2.76). The combined presence of IL-1beta high and intermediate producers genotypes was also associated with BMG in multivariate analyses (P = 0.01, OR 3.05). IL-6 and TNFA polymorphisms were not associated with BMG in the univariate and multivariate analyses. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate that the polymorphism +3954 IL-1B is associated with an increased risk of BMG development and suggest a genetic basis for disease development.