Abstract:Objective To investigate the associations of susceptibility and progression of sepsis in children with the interleukin-6（IL-6） gene promoter region-572C/G polymorphism. Methods A total of 117 patients with sepsis treated in Shiyan Maternal and Child Health Hospital from May 2019 to May 2021 were assigned as study group, and 126 healthy children were enrolled as control group at the same period.The patients in study group were subdivided into sepsis group（n=57） and septic shock group（n=60） according to the Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock（Sepsis-3）. The levels of IL-6,tumor necrosis factor-alpha（TNF-α） and procalcitonin（PCT） in peripheral blood plasma were detected by ELISA, and single nucleotide polymorphisms（SNPs） at rs1800796（-572C/G） of IL-6 gene were measured by polymerase chain reaction restriction endonuclease fragment length polymorphism（PCR-RELP）. The associations of the SNPs with the susceptibility and progression of sepsis were analyzed. Results The levels of IL-6, TNF-α and PCT in study group were significantly higher than those in control group（P＜0.01）, and they in sepsis shock group were higher than those in sepsis group（P＜0.01）.The frequencies of IL-6 CC genotypes and C allele at-572C/G locus in study group were significantly lower than those in control group（P＜0.05），and were also lower in sepsis shock group than those in sepsis group（P＜0.05）. The levels of IL-6,TNF-α and PCT in children with IL-6 CC genotypes were statistically lower than those in children with IL-6 CG/GG genotypes （P＜0.05）. Logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of sepsis in patients with GG genotype was 2.36 times higher than that in patients with CC genotype（95%CI: 1.204-4.628,P＜0.05）. Conclusion IL-6-572C/G gene polymorphism is obviously associated with the progression and outcome of sepsis. The CC genotype may confer a protective effect for sepsis, and the GG genotype is a susceptible genotype and affects the levels of PCT, IL-6 and TNF-α with polymorphisms.