Background: ZEB1 and ZEB2, are expressed by a variety of immune cells of both myeloid and lymphoid lineages, they act to regulate important transcriptional networks necessary for cell differentiation, maintenance, and function. The study was carried out in the Department of Clinical Laboratories / College of Applied Medical Sciences / University of Kerbala during the period from January 2021 to September 2021. The study aimed to shed light on the association between the variation of the ZEB2 gene and serum levels of some cytokines (TNF-α, TGF-β, INF-γ) involved in immune cell differentiation in the Iraqi population.
Methods: A total of 80 healthy volunteers, randomly chosen, were enrolled in this study, with an age ranged 20-50 years at the time of the investigation. The variation of the ZEB2 gene was investigated by the Sanger sequencing method. The serum levels of TNF-α, TGF-β and INF-γ were measured by ELISA.
Results: The results identified presence of nine novel non-registered variants in 27 samples, 5 out of 9 variants were detected in exon1 region, while the other 4 were detected in the 5`UTR region. These variants might be of interest to the ZEB2 gene studies due to their presence in the coding and regulatory regions that regulate the gene expression.
Conclusion: The two variants, 144520053 G/A and 144520162 T/A, among the nine novel variants might be the most important variants because both showed significant effects on some study parameters.
