No evidence for multiple loci affecting rheumatoid arthritis risk on chromosome 6p21
Author Information
Author(s): Richard Sherva, Lingwei Sun, Joanna Biernacka, Rosalind Neuman
Primary Institution: Washington University School of Medicine
Hypothesis
Is HLA-DRB1 the sole cause of the observed linkage signal for rheumatoid arthritis risk on chromosome 6p21?
Conclusion
The study found no evidence for additional genetic loci affecting rheumatoid arthritis risk beyond HLA-DRB1.
Supporting Evidence
- The peak LOD score in NARAC families was at marker D6S1629 with a p-value of 4.28 × 10-16.
- The odds ratio for each additional risk allele in NARAC families was 18.2 with p < 0.0001.
- The Sun et al. test in the HLA-DRB1 region failed to reject the null hypothesis in both NARAC and UK data.
Takeaway
The researchers looked for other genes that might cause rheumatoid arthritis but didn't find any beyond the known gene HLA-DRB1.
Methodology
The study used affected sibling pairs from two different studies to test for additional arthritis risk loci using a specific statistical method.
Potential Biases
The coding system for HLA-DRB1 alleles was inconsistent with other studies, which could affect the results.
Limitations
The sample sizes were not large enough, and the method used may have low power to detect additional loci.
Participant Demographics
Caucasian affected sibling pairs from North American and UK studies.
Statistical Information
P-Value
p = 0.58
Statistical Significance
p<0.05
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