title: Association of the autoimmunity locus 4q27 with juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is characterized by chronic arthritis and an autoimmune etiology. In several autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an association with the 4q27 locus has been reported. We undertook this study to investigate the possible role of the 4q27 locus in JIA.
  
  
  METHODS
  A case-control association study was conducted, with a total of 655 Caucasian JIA patients and 791 healthy controls divided into 2 independent sample sets. The rs6822844 marker in the 4q27 locus was genotyped.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the first and larger sample set, a 5% decrease in T allele frequency was observed in patients compared with controls (allelic odds ratio [OR] 0.72 [95% confidence interval 0.55-0.95], P = 0.019), and in the second set, a 3% decrease was observed (allelic OR 0.81 [95% confidence interval 0.61-1.09], P = 0.169). The combined data set generated an OR of 0.76 (95% confidence interval 0.62-0.93, P = 7.08 x 10(-3)). When the different JIA subtypes were analyzed individually, significant decreases were seen in the subtypes with a polyarticular course of disease (extended oligoarthritis [P = 0.019] and rheumatoid factor-negative polyarthritis [P = 0.038]).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that the 4q27 locus, previously reported to be associated with RA, type 1 diabetes mellitus, celiac disease, and psoriatic arthritis, is also associated with susceptibility to JIA.
authors.affiliation: Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands. h.m.albers@lumc.nl
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Albers
authors.forename: F A S
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Kurreeman
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stoeken-Rijsbergen
authors.forename: D M C
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Brinkman
authors.forename: S S M
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Kamphuis
authors.forename: M A J
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: van Rossum
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Girschick
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wouters
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Saurenmann
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hoppenreijs
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Slagboom
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Houwing-Duistermaat
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Verduijn
authors.forename: T W J
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Huizinga
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ten Cate
authors.forename: R E M
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Toes
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Schilham
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000235:genetics*; D015535:Arthritis, Psoriatic / Q000235:genetics; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000235:genetics; D015551:Autoimmunity / Q000235:genetics*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000235:genetics; D002894:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4 / Q000235:genetics*; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000235:genetics; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics