IL-17A and IL-17F are new pro-inflammatory cytokines implicated in neutrophilic inflammation and thus, involved in the pathogenesis of asthma. We investigated the possible association between asthma and IL-17A -197G/A (rs2275913), IL-17F 7488A/G (rs763780) and IL-17F 7383A/G (rs2397084).

Methods: The study was performed in 171 patients with asthma (mean age 9.5years, 105 boys and 66 girls) and 171 healthy individuals matched with patients in age and sex. The PCR-RFLP method was used to detect genes' polymorphisms.

Results: IL-17A -197G/A and IL-17F 7383A/G were associated with asthma in children (p=0.008, p=0.001 respectively). No association was found with IL-17F 7488A/G polymorphism. Haplotype analysis revealed a significant association between GA and AG haplotypes and asthma (p=0.004, p=0.02). When patients were stratified according to atopic status, no significant association was detected with any of the three studied variants.

Conclusion: Our results suggested that SNPs in IL-17A and IL-17F confer susceptibility to childhood asthma in Tunisia.