Analysis of MHC region genetics in Finnish patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis: evidence for different locus-specific effects in polyarticular vs pauciarticular subsets and a shared DRB1 epitope.
Rowe Program in Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Department of Biological Chemistry, University of California, Davis, USA. jarunstadler@ucdavis.edu
This study used Finnish juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) probands with pauciarticular and rheumatoid factor (RF) negative polyarticular subtypes of JIA to further define the genetic susceptibility to JIA. We examined 16 markers spanning an 18 cM region of chromosome 6 encompassing the MHC and surrounding genomic region in a set of 235 Finnish JIA nuclear families and 639 Finnish control individuals. Analysis by case/control association and transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) methods each demonstrated strong evidence for a susceptibility locus near the D6S2447 microsatellite (P