Cytokine gene polymorphisms may affect their transcription, influence their level of production and may be implicated in inducing susceptibility or resistance to diseases. In 40 Iranian healthy subjects, cytokine single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were used to determine allelic and genotypic frequencies for the following cytokine genes: IL-1a (T/C -889), IL-1beta (C/T -511, T/C 3962), IL-12 (C/A -1188), IFN-gamma (A/T UTR 5644), TGF-beta (C/T codon 10, G/C codon 25), TNF-a (G/A -308, G/A -238), IL-2 (T/G -330, G/T 166), IL-4 (T/G -1089, T/C -590, T/C -33), IL-6 (G/C -174, G/A nt565), IL-10 (G/A -1082, C/T -819, C/A -592), IL-1R (C/T pst11970), IL-1RA (T/C mspa111100) and IL-4RA (G/A 1902). All typing were performed with polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific primers assay. Significant heterogeneity of cytokine SNPs among the Iranian and the other East-South Asian populations was observed. Heterogeneity of cytokine SNPs may explain the role of natural selection in susceptibilities of populations to different disorders.