title: No evidence of IL21 association with multiple sclerosis in a Swedish population.
abstract: Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, with a second autoimmune disease after lymphocyte depletion, had elevated serum IL-21 before and after treatment which correlated to IL21 genotypes. In addition, the IL21 gene has been associated to several other autoimmune diseases. However, in a Spanish population there was no association to MS. Here, in a Swedish cohort (2090 MS cases and 1732 controls) 12 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) tagging IL21 were not associated to disease. There was no interaction with risk alleles of IL21R and HLA-DRB1*15. Lack of genetic association was confirmed in a meta-analysis with pooled data from the present study and the Spanish study. In conclusion, IL21 has not been shown to be a major risk gene for MS.
authors: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Neuroimmunology Unit, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. magdalena.linden@ki.se
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Lindén
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Nohra
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Sundqvist
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Khademi
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Hillert
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Alfredsson
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Olsson
authors: I
authors: I
authors: Kockum
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004843:Epistasis, Genetic; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D053738:Interleukin-21 Receptor alpha Subunit / Q000235:genetics*; D007378:Interleukins / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012307:Risk Factors; D013548:Sweden; D000098546:Interleukin-21
chemical_list: D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains; C507799:HLA-DRB1*15 antigen; C508117:IL21R protein, human; D053738:Interleukin-21 Receptor alpha Subunit; D007378:Interleukins; D000098546:Interleukin-21