We investigated the role of a haplotype from distal as well as proximal polymorphic sites [-7400InDel, -6752AT (rs6676671), -3538AT (rs1800890), -1087AG (rs1800896), -597AC (rs1800872)] of the IL-10 5'-flanking region in a hospital-based case-control study of 165 Caucasian patients with cutaneous melanoma from Germany in comparison with 162 healthy cancer-free Caucasian control participants from the same area matched by age.
To investigate the local immunosuppressive microenvironment, we examined the presence of suppressor T lymphocytes and tolerising dendritic cells (DCs), the expression of immunosuppressive cytokines (IL-10, TGFbeta1 and TGFbeta2) and the enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) using qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry in primary skin melanomas, negative and positive sentinel lymph nodes (SLN), and lymph nodes with advanced metastases.
Individual ability to produce interleukin-10 (IL-10) may be of relevance in the development and evolution of cutaneous melanoma, probably due to its immunosuppressor and anti-angiogenic properties.
These data indicate that investigation of polymorphisms in the regulatory regions of IL10, IL6 and INFgamma genes does not seem to be useful for predicting the risk of development of primary cutaneous melanoma.
Although the influence of IL-10 on melanoma development is likely to be complex, these results support recent findings that IL-10 has an anti-tumour effect in CMM, possibly via inhibition of angiogenesis.