Lack of evidence for association of two functional SNPs of CHI3L1 gene (HC-gp39) with rheumatoid arthritis

Sanjeev K. Srivastava (1) , Péter Antal (2) , János Gál (3) , Gábor Hullám (2) , Ágnes F. Semsei (1) , György Nagy (1, 4) , András Falus (1, 5) , Edit I. Buzás (1)

1 Department of Genetics, Cell and Immunobiology
2 Department of Measurement and Information Systems
3 Department of Rheumatology
4 Polyclinic of the Hospitaller Brothers of St. John of God in Budapest
5 Research Group for Inflammation Biology and Immunogenomics

CHI3L1 gene encodes for a glycoprotein (HC-gp39 or YKL40) secreted by synovial fibroblasts, macrophages, neutrophil granulocytes and chondrocytes. Its expression is under the control of NF-kB. It is regarded as an acute phase protein, and its levels are significantly elevated in rheumatic diseases. Furthermore, HC-gp39 has been shown to be recognized by autoreactive T cells in rheumatoid arthritis. In the present study, we have examined two functional variants of the promoter region of CHI3L1 gene (CHI3L1-1 (rs4950928) and CHI3L1-2 (rs10399931) that have been reported earlier to be associated with schizophrenia and sarcoidosis. We used TaqMan allelic discrimination assays to study the genotypes of Hungarian patients with rheumatoid arthritis ( = 182) and of healthy controls ( = 194). No significant association of the investigated SNPs with the disease was found. Here we report that CHI3L1 SNPs, shown to be involved in the predisposition of schizophrenia, are not associated with rheumatoid arthritis.

Mots clés: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)1; CHI3L1 2; Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)3

Sanjeev K. Srivastava, Péter Antal, János Gál, Gábor Hullám, Ágnes F. Semsei, et al.. Lack of evidence for association of two functional SNPs of CHI3L1 gene (HC-gp39) with rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatology International, 2010, 31 (8), pp.1003-1007. ⟨10.1007/s00296-010-1396-3⟩. ⟨hal-00615343⟩