Background & Objective: Cytokines are immune system factors known to play a key role in both HCV clearance and the development of infection the impact of host genetic factors on the clinical outcome of HCV infection has not been elucidated. On the other hand, the impact of Genetic changes like Single nucleotide polymorphisms on expression rate and function of Cytokine is under study. The aim of the present study was to compare TGF-B cytokine gene polymorphisms associated with the susceptibility to HCV infection.

Materials & Methods: In this case-control study population composed of 125 individuals infected with HCV and 125 healthy controls. Genotyping was carried out by PCR-RFLP and the distribution of the TGF-B1 Gene 915 G>C polymorphism was compared in these groups. For confirmation of RFLP results, 10% of samples were genotyped by direct sequencing.

Results: The frequency of the TGF-β1 gene polymorphisms at position 915 in the HCV patients was GG (92%), GC(8%), CC(0%) and in the healthy controls was GG (89.6%), GC(8.8%),CC(1.6%), respectively. Allele frequency in the patients was G(96%),C(4%) and in the controls was G(94%)and C(6%).Statistically, there was no significant difference in genotype or allele frequency between the HCV patients and the control group.

Conclusion: Distribution of genotypes in the HCV patients was similar to the results of some other studies, but the frequency of genotypes in the healthy controls of this study was different from the results in studies carried out in populations out of Iran. In conclusion, we can not consider TGF-B1 Gene 915 G>C polymorphism as an increasing or decreasing factor for susceptibility to HCV infection in our studied population.