Background: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is an inflammatory liver disease, presenting usually with chronic hepatitis, while acute or fulminant hepatitis are not uncommon. In this study, we investigated the pro-inflammatory cytokines gene polymorphisms in a group of pediatric patients with AIH and compared the results with a group of healthy individuals.Methods: The study group was conducted in 57 pediatric patients with AIH who was referred to the Children’s Medical Center Hospital, the Pediatrics Center of Excellence in Tehran, Iran. The studied alleles and genotypes include TNF-a (A/G -308, A/G -238), IL-1a (C/T -889), IL-1b (C/T -511), IL-1 b (C/T +3962), IL-1 receptor (IL-1R; C/T Pst-I 1970), IL-1RA (C/T Mspa-I 11100), and IL-6 (C/G -174 and A/G nt565).Findings: The frequencies of the following alleles were significantly higher in AIH patients, compared to healthy controls: TNF-a A allele at position -308 (23.7% in AIH patients vs. 14.2% in controls, p<0.035), IL-6 A allele at position nt565 (35.1% in AIH patients vs. 18% in controls, p<0.00042). The most significant differences in genotype frequency between AIH patients and healthy controls belong to TNF-a AA, GA and GG genotypes at position -238 (17.5% in AIH patients vs. 0.7% in controls, p<0.0001 for AA genotype, 3.5% in AIH patients vs. 41.6% in controls, p<0.0001 for GA genotype, and 79% in AIH patients vs. 57.7% in controls, p<0.0081 for GG genotype).Conclusion: IL-6 and TNF-a polymorphisms are shown to have significant differences between AIH patients and healthy controls, but IL-1 family has no significant correlation.

BACKGROUND: Visfatin, a novel adiopocytokine, has been proven to be a proinflammatory mediator involved in the process of atherosclerosis. Visfatin has been shown to play a role in plaque destabilization as it is found abundantly in foam cell macrophages within unstable atherosclerotic plaques. The present study is designed to investigate the potential association between serum vistafin levels and the risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI).METHODS: There were 72 patients (mean age: 61.57±11.40 years) as cases who presented with first-time AMI that were assessed 8 hours after the incident. The control group consisted of 83 healthy volunteers (mean age: 60.30±8.32 years). Plasma visfatin levels were measured using enzyme immunoassay in both groups. Biochemical parameters were analyzed. Blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, diabetes, and hypertension were recorded.RESULTS: Serum visfatin levels were significantly higher in patients with AMI (12.77±8.06 ng/ml) compared to controls (6.57±2.96 ng/ml, P≤0.001). We found that a visfatin level >7.244 ng/ml (log visfatin > 0.86) had a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 75% for predicting AMI.CONCLUSION: We have detected high levels of visfatin in patients with AMI. It can be concluded that proinflammatory cytokines such as visfatin may play a role in the development of atherosclerosis as well as destabilization of the atherosclerotic plaque.