Objectives: Lymphotoxin β (LTB) has been found to be upregulated in salivary glands of patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). An animal model of pSS also showed ablation of the lymphoid organisation and a marked improvement in salivary gland function on blocking the LTB receptor pathway. This study aimed to investigate whether single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the lymphotoxin α (LTA)/LTB/tumour necrosis factor (TNF) gene clusters are associated with pSS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) is characterised by a chronic inflammation of exocrine glands. Salivary gland infiltrates, however, do not correlate well with disease symptoms, and a primary role for the salivary gland parenchyma in disease development has been suggested. Specifically, dysfunction of exocrine pathways involving the muscarinic receptor 3 (CHRM3) has been indicated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFifteen patients suspected of having iNPH were clinically evaluated and their ApoE genotype determined prior to a possible ventriculoperitoneal shunt insertion. All patients fulfilling our criteria for intervention and who had a shunt implanted with good results were homozygous for the ApoE3/3 genotype.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe analyzed a comprehensive set of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and length polymorphisms in the interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) gene for their association with the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in 485 Swedish patients and 563 controls. We found 16 SNPs and two length polymorphisms that display association with SLE (P < 0.0005, OR > 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) gene encodes a transcription factor that plays an important role in the innate as well as in the cell-mediated immune responses. The IRF5 gene has been shown to be associated with systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. We studied whether the IRF5 gene is also associated with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), Crohn disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSveinsson's chorioretinal atrophy (SCRA), also referred to as helicoid peripapillary chorioretinal degeneration or atrophia areata, is an autosomal dominant eye disease, characterized by symmetrical lesions radiating from the optic disc involving the retina and the choroid. Genome-wide linkage analysis mapped the SCRA gene to chromosome 11p15 in 81 patients from a large founder pedigree in Iceland. The parametric LOD score obtained was 18.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) with a complex genetic background. Here we use a genome-wide association strategy with 4804 microsatellite markers successfully typed in separately pooled DNA from 200 patients and 200 controls. A total of 91 markers showed evidence of association.
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