Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2017

Identifier

PMCID: PMC5530326 DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2016-210025

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a heterogeneous group of diseases, comprising seven categories. Genetic data could potentially be used to help redefine JIA categories and improve the current classification system. The human leucocyte antigen (HLA) region is strongly associated with JIA. Fine-mapping of the region was performed to look for similarities and differences in HLA associations between the JIA categories and define correspondences with adult inflammatory arthritides.

METHODS: Dense genotype data from the HLA region, from the Immunochip array for 5043 JIA cases and 14 390 controls, were used to impute single-nucleotide polymorphisms, HLA classical alleles and amino acids. Bivariate analysis was performed to investigate genetic correlation between the JIA categories. Conditional analysis was used to identify additional effects within the region. Comparison of the findings with those in adult inflammatory arthritic diseases was performed.

RESULTS: We identified category-specific associations and have demonstrated for the first time that rheumatoid factor (RF)-negative polyarticular JIA and oligoarticular JIA are genetically similar in their HLA associations. We also observe that each JIA category potentially has an adult counterpart. The RF-positive polyarthritis association at HLA-DRB1 amino acid at position 13 mirrors the association in adult seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Interestingly, the combined oligoarthritis and RF-negative polyarthritis dataset shares the same association with adult seronegative RA.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest the value of using genetic data in helping to classify the categories of this heterogeneous disease. Mapping JIA categories to adult counterparts could enable shared knowledge of disease pathogenesis and aetiology and facilitate transition from paediatric to adult services.

Journal Title

Annals of the rheumatic diseases

Volume

76

Issue

4

First Page

765

Last Page

772

MeSH Keywords

Adult; Alleles; Amino Acids; Arthritis, Juvenile; Arthritis, Rheumatoid; Case-Control Studies; Child; Genotype; HLA Antigens; HLA-DRB1 Chains; Humans; Major Histocompatibility Complex; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Rheumatoid Factor

Keywords

Autoimmune Diseases; Gene Polymorphism; Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis; Rheumatoid Arthritis; JIA; RA

Comments

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publisher's Link: https://ard.bmj.com/content/76/4/765.long

Download

Share

COinS