title: beta2-adrenergic receptor gene single-nucleotide polymorphisms are associated with rheumatoid arthritis in northern Sweden.
abstract: The beta2-adrenergic receptor (beta2-AR) belongs to the group of G-protein-coupled receptors and is present on skeletal and cardiac muscle cells and on lymphocytes. The gene encoding beta2-AR (ADRB2) displays a moderate degree of heterogeneity in the human population and the distributions of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at amino acid positions 16, 27, and 164 are changed in asthma, obesity, and hypertension and in the autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis. An involvement of the beta2-AR has also been suggested in human rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and its animal model. We describe here an increased prevalence of the alleles Arg16 and Gln27 and a lower prevalence of homozygosis for Gly16 and Glu27 in patients with RA. Patients having the genotype combination GlyGly16-GlnGlu27 had higher levels of rheumatoid factor (RF) and a more active disease than other patients. Patients having the genotype Arg16-Gln27+ had higher levels of RF when compared to those having Arg16+Gln27+, and patients who were carriers of Gln27 had a more active disease than non-carriers of Gln27. Our results show an association of beta2-AR SNPs with RA in a population from the northern part of Sweden. Our study also confirms the strong linkage disequilibrium of genotypes at amino acid positions 16 and 27.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, American Red Cross Biomedical Research and Development, MD 20855, USA. xubiy@usa.redcross.org
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Arlehag
authors.forename: S-B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Rantapää-Dahlquist
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Lefvert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000483:Alleles; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016017:Odds Ratio; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D018343:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-2 / Q000235:genetics*; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D018343:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-2