YY carried out the blood collection from patients and health. YH participated in the ELISA assays. WL participated in the design of the

study and performed the statistical analysis. XX conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination. All authors read and approved the final manuscript”
“Introduction Breast cancer is the most common malignancy threatening the health and life of women and it’s incidence has increased in recent years in both developed and developing countries[1]. Biologic mechanisms leading to the development of breast cancer are not clearly GSK2126458 in vivo understood, but the role of cytokines in cancer immunity and carcinogenesis has been well established[2]. As a multifunctional Th2-cytokine with both immunosuppressive and anti-angiogenic functions, interleukin-10 (IL-10) may have both tumor-promoting and tumor-inhibiting properties[3]. Recent data suggest that Selleckchem Tipifarnib polymorphic variations in the promoter learn more sequences of IL-10 gene may influence the gene expression[4, 5] and consequently play a certain role in susceptibility and clinical course of breast cancer. IL-10 is an important immunoregulatory cytokine mainly produced by activated T cells, monocytes, B cells and thymocytes. As an immune response

modulator, IL-10 can both stimulate and suppress the immune response[6]. Numerous studies have shown that IL-10 may be involved in the pathogenesis of cancer, but the results Phosphoprotein phosphatase were inconsistent. On the one hand, increased serum IL-10 levels could facilitate development of cancer by suppressing expression

of MHC class I and II antigens[7] and preventting tumor antigen presentation to CD8-cytotoxic T lymphocytes. On the other hand, anti-angiogenic effects of IL-10 are supposed to play a protective and preventive role against tumor. The gene encoding IL-10 is located on human chromosome 1q31-1q32[8, 9], and is composed of five exons and four introns. It has been reported that several important polymorphic sites in the IL-10 gene, including three in the promoter region (-1082 (A/G, -819 T/C, -592 A/C) may influence the transcription of IL-10 messenger RNA and the expression of IL-10 in vitro [10–12]. Although several studies have shown the possible involvement of IL-10 in the pathogenesis of breast cancer, as well as its association with prognosis in different ethnic populations, the results were not all consistent[13]. Furthermore, little is known about the effect of these polymorphisms on the risk of beast cancer in the Han Chinese population. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether IL-10 gene promoter -1082A/G, -819T/C and -592A/C polymorphisms and haplotypes were associated with breast cancer in a Han Chinese population. Materials and methods Subjects Blood samples were taken from 315 breast cancer cases and 322 non-cancer controls.