RANTES promoter polymorphism as a genetic risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis in the Chinese.
OBJECTIVE
There is increasing evidence suggesting a role of RANTES in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and we evaluated the possible effect of RANTES gene on the susceptibility to RA in Chinese patients.


METHODS
We examined the polymorphisms at the promoter positions -28 and -403 of this gene in 151 Chinese RA patients and 149 ethnically matched healthy controls.


RESULTS
The genotypic frequencies in this study were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. RA patients had significantly higher frequencies of the A allele (36.1% vs. 27.5%, p = 0.024) and A/A genotype (odds ratio [OR] = 3.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.4-7.9, p = 0.005) at the promoter -403 position. Differences in allele and genotype frequencies at the promoter -28 position between patients and controls were not statistically significant (for G allele, p = 0.103 and for genotype, p = 0.106). RA patients also had a significantly higher frequency of the -28 C/G with -403 A/A compound genotype (OR = 4.6, 95% CI = 1.5-14.5, p = 0.005), and a higher frequency of the -28 G/-403 A haplotype with marginal statistical significance (OR = 1.7, 95% CI = 1.0-3.1, p = 0.059).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that polymorphism in the promoter region of RANTES gene is associated with the susceptibility to RA in the Chinese population.
Wang
C-R
CR
Section of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. wangcr@mail.ncku.edu.tw
Guo
H-R
HR
Liu
M-F
MF
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000097:blood / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics*; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology; D018946:Chemokine CCL5 / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D005819:Genetic Markers; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012307:Risk Factors; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology
D018946:Chemokine CCL5; D005819:Genetic Markers; D004247:DNA