CARD14 alterations in Tunisian patients with psoriasis and further characterization in European cohorts.

Background: Rare highly penetrant gain-of-function mutations in caspase recruitment domain family, member 14 (CARD14) can lead to psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the skin and other organs.

Objectives: To investigate the contribution of rare CARD14 variants to psoriasis in the Tunisian population and to expand knowledge of CARD14 variants in the European population.

Methods: CARD14 coding exons were resequenced in patients with psoriasis and controls from Tunisia and Europe, including 16 European cases with generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP).

Failure to find evidence for deletion of LCE3C and LCE3B genes at PSORS4 contributing to psoriasis susceptibility in Tunisian families.

Background: Recently, it has been shown that a deletion in the late cornified envelope (LCE) gene cluster (LCE3C_LCE3B-del) is associated with susceptibility to psoriasis in European and Asian populations. However, no study of this deletion has been performed in the North African population. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether this deletion is associated with familial psoriasis in Tunisian population.

Family-based association study in Tunisian familial psoriasis.

Background: The pathogenesis of all forms of psoriasis remains obscure. Segregation analysis and twin studies together with ethnic differences in disease frequency all point to an underlying genetic susceptibility to psoriasis, which is both complex and likely to reflect the action of a number of genes.

Materials And Methods: In the present study, we performed a family-based association study, and a transmission dysequilibrium test using the PLINK program, in a set of seven Tunisian multiplex families using a panel of 96 single-nucleotide polymorphisms localized in several regions across the genome.

Genome-wide linkage scan for psoriasis susceptibility loci in multiplex Tunisian families.

Background: Psoriasis is a relapsing chronic inflammatory skin disease affecting all population groups, with a peak prevalence of 3% in northern European and Scandinavian caucasians. Epidemiological studies have implicated a genetic component to psoriasis. In the past 12 years multiple genome-wide linkage analyses have identified putative susceptibility loci on several chromosomes, with a major locus in the major histocompatibility complex region.

Association analysis of LCE3C-LCE3B deletion in Tunisian psoriatic population.

An association between a common deletion comprising the late cornified envelope LCE3B and LCE3C genes (LCE3C_LCE3B-del) and psoriasis has been reported in Caucasian and Asian populations. To investigate whether this deletion plays a role in the genetic of psoriasis in Tunisian population, we determined the LCE3C_LCE3B-del genotype in 180 Ps patients and 208 healthy controls from different regions of Tunisia. The LCE3B and LCE3C gene variant was determined in the patients through PCR amplification and the SPSS software package.