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Genetic polymorphism of the growth arrest-specific 6 gene is associated with cutaneous vasculitis in Taiwanese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

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Abstract

The growth arrest-specific 6 (GAS6) gene product participates in platelet activation and granulocyte interaction with the endothelium. Our case–control study aimed to determine whether polymorphism of GAS6 was associated with predisposing risk or specific clinical manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Two of the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the GAS6 gene, GAS6 834 + 7G/A (rs8191974) and GAS6 +1332C/T (rs1803628), were investigated in 83 SLE patients and 89 non-lupus control subjects. We demonstrated that among lupus patients, the GAS6 +1332 T allele was more prevalent in patients with cutaneous vasculitis (allele T 41.7 % in patients with cutaneous vasculitis compared with 18.3 % in patients without vasculitis, odds ratio (OR) 3.2, 95 % confidence interval 1.3–8.0, p = 0.016). In conclusion, GAS6 polymorphism is positively associated with cutaneous vasculitis in SLE patients, which suggests that GAS6 polymorphism could be a genetic marker for SLE with cutaneous vasculitis.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants from the National Science Council, Taiwan (NSC95-2320-B-002-081, NSC98-3112-B-002-047, NSC98-2320-B-002-021-MY2, and NSC98-2320-B-002-049-MY3) and the National Taiwan University Hospital (VN-9801). We acknowledge the assistance of Ms. Mei Hsuan Wu, statistics consultant at the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, for data review and discussion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Chien-Sheng Wu

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chien-Sheng Wu & Ping-Ning Hsu

  3. Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chung-Yi Hu, Cheng-Ju Chan & Sheng-Kai Chang

  4. Graduate Institute of Immunology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, No. 1 Jen-Ai Rd., Sec. 1, Taipei, 100, Taiwan

    Ping-Ning Hsu

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  1. Chien-Sheng Wu
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Correspondence to Ping-Ning Hsu.

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Wu, CS., Hu, CY., Chan, CJ. et al. Genetic polymorphism of the growth arrest-specific 6 gene is associated with cutaneous vasculitis in Taiwanese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Clin Rheumatol 31, 1443–1448 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-012-2027-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-012-2027-z

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