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Polymorphisms of KIR Gene and HLA-C Alleles: Possible Association with Susceptibility to HLA-B27-Positive Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis

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Abstract

Accumulating evidences indicate that killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) and their corresponding specific HLA-C ligands contribute to the pathogenesis of multiple autoimmune diseases via the modulation of natural killer (NK) cell and T cell functions. The present study was performed to investigate whether the polymorphism of KIR genes and HLA ligands associates with the susceptibility of ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Previous studies have demonstrated a strong association between HLA-B27 gene and the pathogenesis of AS. In this study, 115 unrelated HLA-B27-positive AS patients and 119 HLA-B27-positive healthy controls were recruited. Polymerase chain reaction using sequence-specific primers was used to determine the genotypes of KIR genes and HLA-C alleles. The results showed that the frequencies of KIR2DL1 and KIR2DL5 were significantly higher in the AS patient group than those in the control group (p = 0.012 and p = 0.009, respectively). Meanwhile, individuals with AS showed an increased frequency of HLA-Cw*08 (p = 0.001, p c  = 0.008) compared with that in controls. Our findings indicate that with the genetic background of HLA-B27, variation at the KIRs and their corresponding specific HLA-C ligands may influence the ability of NK cells and T cells to recognize and lyse targets in immune responses, which thereby contributes to pathogenesis of AS.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation grants Y2008C134 to Yu-Lian Jiao and ZR2009CM139 to Yue-Ran Zhao.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Laboratory, Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, 250021, People’s Republic of China

    Yu-Lian Jiao, Jie Zhang, Chun-Yan Ma, Bin Cui, Lai-Cheng Wang & Yue-Ran Zhao

  2. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, 250021, People’s Republic of China

    Bing-Chang Zhang

  3. Research Center for Reproductive Medicine, Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, 250021, China

    Li You & Zi-Jiang Chen

  4. Eye and ENT Hospital, Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, 250021, People’s Republic of China

    Jian-Feng Li

Authors
  1. Yu-Lian Jiao
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  2. Bing-Chang Zhang
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  3. Li You
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  4. Jian-Feng Li
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  5. Jie Zhang
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  6. Chun-Yan Ma
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  7. Bin Cui
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  8. Lai-Cheng Wang
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  9. Zi-Jiang Chen
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  10. Yue-Ran Zhao
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zi-Jiang Chen or Yue-Ran Zhao.

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Yu-Lian Jiao and Bing-Chang Zhang contributed equally to this work.

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Jiao, YL., Zhang, BC., You, L. et al. Polymorphisms of KIR Gene and HLA-C Alleles: Possible Association with Susceptibility to HLA-B27-Positive Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis. J Clin Immunol 30, 840–844 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-010-9444-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-010-9444-z

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