IL-9 and IL-10 Single‐Nucleotide Variants and Serum Levels in Age‐Related Macular Degeneration in the Caucasian Population

Considering the immunological impairment in age‐related macular degeneration (AMD), we aimed to determine the associations of IL-9 rs1859430, rs2069870, rs11741137, rs2069885, and rs2069884 and IL-10 rs1800871, rs1800872, and rs1800896 polymorphisms and their haplotypes, as well as the serum levels of IL‐9 and IL‐10 with AMD. 1209 participants were enrolled in our study. SNPs were genotyped using TaqMan SNP genotyping assays by real‐time PCR method. IL‐9 and IL‐10 serum levels were evaluated using ELISA kits. Our study results have shown that haplotypes A‐G‐C‐G‐G and G‐A‐T‐A‐T of IL-9 SNPs are associated with the decreased odds of early AMD occurrence (p = 0.035 and p = 0.015, respectively). A set of rare haplotypes was associated with the decreased odds of exudative AMD occurrence (p = 0.033). Also, IL‐10 serum levels were lower in exudative AMD than in controls (p = 0.049), patients with early AMD (p = 0.017), and atrophic AMD (p = 0.008). Furthermore, exudative AMD patients with IL-10 rs1800896 CT and TT genotypes had lower IL‐10 serum concentrations than those with wild‐type (CC) genotype (p = 0.048). In conclusion, our study suggests that IL‐10 serum levels can be associated with a minor allele at IL-10 rs1800896 and exudative AMD. The haplotypes of IL‐9 SNPs were also associated with the decreased odds of early and exudative AMD.