Rheumatoid Arthritis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Rheumatoid Arthritis, including details on treatment, symptoms, causes, medication.

The CTLA4+49A/G and CT60 polymorphisms and chronic inflammatory arthropathies in Northern Ireland.

Suppiah V, O'Doherty C, Heggarty S, Patterson CC, Rooney M, Vandenbroeck K

Applied Genomics Research Group, School of Pharmacy, McClay Research Centre, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland, UK.

Rheumatoid and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (RA, JIA) are chronic inflammatory arthropathies with an autoimmune background. The cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) protein plays a key role in the down-regulation of T cell activation. We analyzed the CTLA4 +49A/G and CT60 polymorphisms in cohorts of Northern Irish RA and JIA patients and healthy control subjects using restriction fragment length polymorphism methods. The +49 A allele was increased in RA (61.2%; P=0.02; OR=1.28; 95% C.I.=1.04-1.58) and JIA (61.8%; P=0.14) patients compared to the control population (55.3%). No significant association was observed for the CT60 polymorphism. Haplotype analysis revealed a significantly different distribution of +49 A/G-CT60 haplotypes in RA and JIA patients compared to controls (P value<0.00001 and 0.030 for comparison of RA and JIA patients with controls, respectively). Our results suggest that the CTLA-4 gene is involved in predisposition to inflammatory arthropathies in the Northern Irish population.

Published 28 February 2006 in Exp Mol Pathol, 80(2): 141-6.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Rheumatoid Arthritis Research Today. All Rights Reserved.