Association of HLA-G, HLA-E and HLA-B*27 with susceptibility and clinical phenotype of enthesitis related arthritis (ERA).

We studied the association of Enthesitis related arthritis (ERA) the most common variant of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) in Asians, with HLA-G and -E polymorphisms. HLA-G (14 bp Ins/Del rs371194629, +3142 rs1063320, +3187 rs9380142) and HLA-E (rs1264457, and rs2844724) polymorphisms were analyzed in 127 patients with ERA and 381 ethnically matched healthy controls with TaqMan 5'-nuclease assay using allele-specific fluorogenic oligonucleotide probes. HLA-G and -E polymorphisms were not found to be associated with susceptibility to ERA. HLA-G +3187 (rs9380142) G allele was associated with hip arthritis (Pc = 0.04, OR = 2.22, 95%CI = 1.07-4.63) and hip deformity (Pc = 0.02, OR = 2.51, 95%CI = 1.16-5.43). HLA-B*27 was positive in 91. HLA-E rs1264457 G and rs2844724 T alleles may be associated with B*27 positivity in ERA. Among HLA-G, -E haplotypes, frequency of -InsGAAC was significantly higher in patients than healthy controls (Pc = 0.003). In conclusion, HLA-G and HLA-E haplotype -InsGAAC may be associated with susceptibility to ERA and HLA-G +3187 rs9380142 A>G polymorphism may be a poor prognostic marker for progression to hip arthritis and deformity in ERA-JIA.