Association study of MICA gene polymorphisms with rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility in south Tunisian population

摘要

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I chain-related gene A (MICA) polymorphisms, important in natural killer (NK) cell function, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A transmembrane (TM) alanine-encoding GCT repeats, termed A4, A5, A5.1, A6 and A9 in the MICA gene, and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): the Met129Val polymorphism (rs1051792) and the nonsynonymously coding SNP (rs1051794) were genotyped in 142 patients with RA and 123 unrelated healthy individuals using, respectively, PCR fluorescent method, nested PCR-RFLP and allele specific PCR (ASP). Association was assessed based on the 2 test, genotype relative risk (GRR) and odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Our results show a trend of association of the different MICA genotypes G/G, G/A and A/A (P=0.029) which did not attain the significance after Bonferroni's correction (p(c)=0.08). Although, we revealed a significant association of the genotype A/A of MICA-250 in patients with RA compared to healthy controls (pc=0.033). In contrast, no significant differences between alleles and genotypes frequencies were found either with MICA-TM or MICA met129val (P>0.05) in our sample. Moreover, stratification of patients with RA according to clinical and immunological data for the different polymorphisms studied shows a significant association of both MICA-250G allele (pc=0.0075) and MICA-250 GG genotype (pc=0.008) and both allelic (val) (pc=0.021) and genotypic (val/val) distribution (p(c)=0.0095) for MICA met129val in the RF-positive subgroup compared to RF-negative patients with RA. In contrast, we found a strong association of the MICA-TM A9 allele in RF-negative patients with RA (p(c)=0.0003). This study indicates the involvement of the MICA-250 polymorphism in the genetic susceptibility and severity to RA and suggests that variations in MICA-TM and MICA met129val may have an effect on RA severity in our south Tunisian sample.