IL18 and hepatitis B virus infection: Inpatients with hepatitis B from the Chinese population, the −137GG and −607CA allelevariants of the IL-18 gene promoter are consistently more frequent; conversely,hepatitis B is encountered consistently more rarely in persons with theC-allele at −137 [11].Nevertheless, the impact of one or other IL-18 allele variant on the level ofprotein production has not been adequately studied.