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Genetic factors associated with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic vasculitis: Evaluation of a panel of polymorphisms.

2009; Volume: 27; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3233/dma-2009-0666

Elisa Menegatti, Annalisa Davit, Simona Francica, Daniela Berardi, Daniela Rossi, Simone Baldovino, Pier‐Angelo Tovo, Luigi M. Sena, Dario Roccatello,

Systemic Sclerosis and Related Diseases

Immune and inflammatory response activation is a common feature of connective tissue diseases and systemic vasculitis. The aim of our study was to evaluate the possible involvement of TNFalpha c.-308A > G, IL-10 c.-1082A > G, uteroglobin c.38A > G, TGFbeta 1 c.869C > T and NFkappaB2 c.-1837T > C gene polymorphisms in susceptibility to connective tissue diseases. Our study cohort included 68 unrelated patients affected by rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (37 patients) and ANCA-positive [micropolyangiitis (mPA) 17 patients] or ANCA-negative systemic vasculitis [including 8 patients with Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) and 6 patients with mixed cryoglobulinaemia (MC)] as well as 98 control subjects. Allele frequency analysis of uteroglobin c.38G > A polymorphism showed a significant increase in the c.38A allele in patients (p= 0.002). Genotype frequency analysis of uteroglobin and NF-kappaB2 gene polymorphisms in patients showed an increase in c.38GA and c.38AA genotypes in the uteroglobin gene (p=0.02) coupled with an increase in homozygous c.-1837CC in the NF-kappaB2 gene (p=0.02). Our data suggest that genetic variation in UG and NF-kappaB2 pathways could have effects in connective tissue disease susceptibility.