Asthma is a common respiratory disease characterized by bronchial hyperresponsiveness and airways obstruction. Asthma is clearly a complex disorder with evidence that many genes as well as gene-gene interactions contribute to susceptibility. To date, numerous DNA-loci and candidate genes have been reported to show linkage and association to asthma. Cytokines play an integral role in the coordination and persistence of the allergic inflammation of the airways in asthma. The purpose of the present study was to investigate of polymorphisms of cytokine and cytokine receptor genes (IL4, IL4Rα, IL9, IL10, TNFα) in patients with asthma and healthy donors from Volga-Ural region of Russia. The asthma group consisted of 156 patients, the control group included 203 unrelated nonasthmatic subjects with different ethnic origins (Russians, Tatars, Bashkirs). Genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction with specific primers and restriction analysis. We have detected significantly differences of allele and genotype frequencies of -590>T polymorphism of the IL4 gene between asthma patients and healthy individuals of Tatars. The frequencies of T allele and TT genotype were higher in asthma patients (30,3% and 9,09%) compared with control groups (17,21% and 1,64 %, accordingly). The distribution of allele and genotype frequencies of I50V polymorphism of the IL4Rα gene differed between asthma patients and healthy donors of Russians. Increased frequency of II genotype was found in asthma patients (40% vs 24,14%). The analysis of Q576R polymorphism of the IL4Rα gene, T113M polymorphism of the IL9 gene, -627C>A polymorphism of the IL10 gene and -308 G/A polymorphism of the TNFα gene detected that the allele and genotype frequencies distribution was similar in asthma patients and control group. The data of this study revealed differences in the distribution of polymorphic alleles and genotypes of the IL4 and IL4Rα genes betw een asthma patients and healthy donors from Volga-Ural region of Russia.