Tehran University of Medical Sciences Acta Medica Iranica 0044-6025 56 7 2018 08 13 429 433 EN Isaura Isabelle Fonseca Gomes-Silva Department of Genetics, Federal University of Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235-Cidade Universitária, Recife-PE, Brazil. Eliezer Rushansky Department of Clinical Rheumatology, University of Pernambuco, Rua Arnóbio Marques, 10-Santo Amaro, Recife-PE, Brazil. Francisco Geraldo Carvalho-Neto Department of Genetics, Federal University of Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235-Cidade Universitária, Recife-PE, Brazil. Amanda Virginia Batista Vieira Department of Biology, Rural Federal University of Pernambuco, Rua Manoel de Medeiros-Dois Irmãos, Recife-PE, Brazil. Maria Helena Queiroz de Araujo Mariano Department of Clinical Rheumatology, University of Pernambuco, Rua Arnóbio Marques, 10-Santo Amaro, Recife-PE, Brazil. Paulo Roberto Eleutério de Souza Department of Biology, Rural Federal University of Pernambuco, Rua Manoel de Medeiros-Dois Irmãos, Recife-PE, Brazil. Martín Alejandro Montes Department of Biology, Rural Federal University of Pernambuco, Rua Manoel de Medeiros-Dois Irmãos, Recife-PE, Brazil. Maria Mascena Diniz Maia Department of Biology, Rural Federal University of Pernambuco, Rua Manoel de Medeiros-Dois Irmãos, Recife-PE, Brazil. 2017 04 08 2017 12 12 Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a complex disease with higher level of IL-6. In order to elucidate the alterations related to IL-6 gene in RA, we evaluated the -174 G/C IL-6 gene polymorphism and methylation pattern of its promoter. A total of 120 RA patients and 120 healthy controls were recruited for polymorphism analysis, and 30 individuals of both groups were randomly selected for methylation analysis. The IL-6 gene polymorphism was analyzed by PCR-RFLP and methylation pattern was analyzed by MSP-PCR. Regarding IL-6 gene polymorphism, no significant difference was found between RA patients and controls (P>0.05). For DNA, two CpG regions of IL-6 promoter gene was analyzed. The first region (−1069, −1061, −1057 and −1001 CpG) did not show significant differences, whereas the second region (−628, −610, −574 and −491 CpG) showed a significant hypermethylated status (P=0.0004) in RA patients as compared with controls.These results, suggest a possible relationship between methylation pattern and the susceptibility to RA in our studied population. https://acta.tums.ac.ir/index.php/acta/article/view/6344 https://acta.tums.ac.ir/index.php/acta/article/download/6344/5125