Objective To determine whether interleukin-1α and 1β gene polymorphism is associated with rheumatoid arthritis disease activity and bone mineral metabolism, and whether there is any relationship between IL-1β and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) motif gene. Methods IL-1 gene polymorphisms were analyzed in 65 RA patients who met American College of Radiology (ACR) criteria and 60 controls. From genomic DNA, 2 polymorphisms in each gene for IL1α-889 and IL-1β+3953 were typed by PCR-RFLP and HLA-DRB1 allele typing was also undertaken by PCR-SSOP. Some clinical and laboratory parameters were collected. The allelic frequencies and carriage rates were compared between RA patients and controls and between patients with active and quiescent disease. Comparison was also made between IL-1 polymorphism and parameters of bone mineral metabolism and between patients with the HLA-DRB1 RA motif plus IL-1β2 and patients without the two alleles. Fisher test and the analysis of variance was used to analyze the data.Results There was no significant difference in the frequency and carriage rate of IL-1α polymorphisms between RA patients and the controls. The β2/2 genotype of IL-1β was more common in female RA patients compared with controls (P=0.001). A lower carriage rate of IL-1β2 occurred in male RA patients (P=0.001). A higher carriage rate of IL-1α2 is associated with a higher ESR (P=0.008), HAQ score (P=0.03), and vit-D3 (P