Association of TLR4 polymorphisms with Behcet's disease in a Korean population.
OBJECTIVE
HLA-B51 is strongly associated with Behçet's disease (BD) in any ethnic background. We recently reported that another gene, Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4) is also implicated in BD in a Japanese population. To confirm these results, we investigated polymorphisms in the TLR4 gene in Korean patients with BD.


METHODS
In this study, 119 patients with BD and 141 healthy controls were enrolled; every participant was a Korean. Nine single nucleotide polymorphisms previously detected in TLR4 by direct sequencing were analysed for an association with BD.


RESULTS
The most frequent haplotype, TAGCGGTAA, was significantly increased in HLA-B*51-positive BD patients (49.5%), compared with healthy control participants [32.3%; P = 0.029; odds ratio (OR) = 2.01; 95% CI 1.25-3.23]. This haplotype was also significantly increased in BD patients with arthritis (48.2%; P = 0.003; OR = 1.96; 95% CI 1.26-3.26). There were no significant differences in the allele and genotype frequencies of patients and controls for each single nucleotide polymorphism.


CONCLUSIONS
The haplotype of TLR4 may increase the risk for developing BD and the complication of arthritis in the Korean population.
Horie
Yukihiro
Y
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
Meguro
Akira
A
Ota
Masao
M
Kitaichi
Nobuyoshi
N
Katsuyama
Yoshihiko
Y
Takemoto
Yuko
Y
Namba
Kenichi
K
Yoshida
Kazuhiko
K
Song
Yeong Wook
YW
Park
Kyung Sook
KS
Lee
Eun Bong
EB
Inoko
Hidetoshi
H
Mizuki
Nobuhisa
N
Ohno
Shigeaki
S
D001168:Arthritis / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D001483:Base Sequence; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015342:DNA Probes / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D015235:HLA-B Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D059949:HLA-B51 Antigen; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4 / Q000235:genetics*
D015342:DNA Probes; D015235:HLA-B Antigens; D059949:HLA-B51 Antigen; C495345:TLR4 protein, human; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4