Immunoregulatory gene polymorphisms in women with preeclampsia

The costimulatory molecules CD28, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4) and inducible costimulator (ICOS) are believed to have a critical modulatory role in the immune response. However, few studies have been performed on the role of these immune regulatory molecules and their polymorphisms in women with preeclampsia (PE). the aim of our study was to evaluate the CTLA4 (+49 A/G) (rs 231775), CD28 (+17 T/C) (rs 3116496) and ICOS (-1564 T/C) (rs 4675378) gene polymorphisms in Brazilian women with PE. This case-control study included 130 patients with PE and 261 control women without any obstetric or systemic disorders. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood, and the polymorphism genotyping was performed by digesting the PCR products with the restriction endonucleases BbvI (CTLA-4), Afel (CD28) and AluI (ICOS). Data were analyzed by X(2) or Fisher's exact test; a P-value of < 0.05 was considered as significant. There were significant differences in the ICOS genotype and allelic frequencies between the PE and control groups (P=0.01 and P=0.01, respectively). We found a significantly lower frequency of the ICOS (-1564) T allele in women with mild PE compared with the controls. There were no differences in the CTLA-4 (+49 A/G) and CD28 (+17 T/C) genotypes and allelic frequencies between the PE patients and controls. Our data suggest that PE is associated with ICOS, but is not associated with the CTLA-4 or CD28 gene polymorphisms. Hypertension Research (2011) 34, 384-388; doi:10.1038/hr.2010.247; published online 16 December 2010Fundacao de Amparo a PesquisaCoordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Obstet, BR-01415002 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Obstet, BR-01415002 São Paulo, BrazilFundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa: 07/57446-0Web of Scienc

Genetic association analyses implicate aberrant regulation of innate and adaptive immunity genes in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a genetically complex autoimmune disease characterized by loss of immune tolerance to nuclear and cell surface antigens. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) had modest sample sizes, reducing their scope and reliability. Our study comprised 7,219 cases and 15,991 controls of European ancestry, constituting a new GWAS, a meta-analysis with a published GWAS and a replication study. We have mapped 43 susceptibility loci, including ten new associations. Assisted by dense genome coverage, imputation provided evidence for missense variants underpinning associations in eight genes. Other likely causal genes were established by examining associated alleles for cis-acting eQTL effects in a range of ex vivo immune cells. We found an over-representation (n = 16) of transcription factors among SLE susceptibility genes. This finding supports the view that aberrantly regulated gene expression networks in multiple cell types in both the innate and adaptive immune response contribute to the risk of developing SLE

A Genome-Wide Association Study Identified AFF1 as a Susceptibility Locus for Systemic Lupus Eyrthematosus in Japanese

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that causes multiple organ damage. Although recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have contributed to discovery of SLE susceptibility genes, few studies has been performed in Asian populations. Here, we report a GWAS for SLE examining 891 SLE cases and 3,384 controls and multi-stage replication studies examining 1,387 SLE cases and 28,564 controls in Japanese subjects. Considering that expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) have been implicated in genetic risks for autoimmune diseases, we integrated an eQTL study into the results of the GWAS. We observed enrichments of cis-eQTL positive loci among the known SLE susceptibility loci (30.8%) compared to the genome-wide SNPs (6.9%). In addition, we identified a novel association of a variant in the AF4/FMR2 family, member 1 (AFF1) gene at 4q21 with SLE susceptibility (rs340630; P = 8.3×10−9, odds ratio = 1.21). The risk A allele of rs340630 demonstrated a cis-eQTL effect on the AFF1 transcript with enhanced expression levels (P<0.05). As AFF1 transcripts were prominently expressed in CD4+ and CD19+ peripheral blood lymphocytes, up-regulation of AFF1 may cause the abnormality in these lymphocytes, leading to disease onset

Global Analysis of the Impact of Environmental Perturbation on cis-Regulation of Gene Expression

Genetic variants altering cis-regulation of normal gene expression (cis-eQTLs) have been extensively mapped in human cells and tissues, but the extent by which controlled, environmental perturbation influences cis-eQTLs is unclear. We carried out large-scale induction experiments using primary human bone cells derived from unrelated donors of Swedish origin treated with 18 different stimuli (7 treatments and 2 controls, each assessed at 2 time points). The treatments with the largest impact on the transcriptome, verified on two independent expression arrays, included BMP-2 (t = 2h), dexamethasone (DEX) (t = 24h), and PGE2 (t = 24h). Using these treatments and control, we performed expression profiling for 18,144 RefSeq transcripts on biological replicates of the complete study cohort of 113 individuals (ntotal = 782) and combined it with genome-wide SNP-genotyping data in order to map treatment-specific cis-eQTLs (defined as SNPs located within the gene ±250 kb). We found that 93% of cis-eQTLs at 1% FDR were observed in at least one additional treatment, and in fact, on average, only 1.4% of the cis-eQTLs were considered as treatment-specific at high confidence. The relative invariability of cis-regulation following perturbation was reiterated independently by genome-wide allelic expression tests where only a small proportion of variance could be attributed to treatment. Treatment-specific cis-regulatory effects were, however, 2- to 6-fold more abundant among differently expressed genes upon treatment. We further followed-up and validated the DEX–specific cis-regulation of the MYO6 and TNC loci and found top cis-regulatory variants located 180 kb and 250 kb upstream of the transcription start sites, respectively. Our results suggest that, as opposed to tissue-specificity of cis-eQTLs, the interactions between cellular environment and cis-variants are relatively rare (∼1.5%), but that detection of such specific interactions can be achieved by a combination of functional genomic approaches as described here

Genome-Wide Association Study in Asian Populations Identifies Variants in ETS1 and WDFY4 Associated with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a complex and potentially fatal autoimmune disease, characterized by autoantibody production and multi-organ damage. By a genome-wide association study (320 patients and 1,500 controls) and subsequent replication altogether involving a total of 3,300 Asian SLE patients from Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Thailand, as well as 4,200 ethnically and geographically matched controls, genetic variants in ETS1 and WDFY4 were found to be associated with SLE (ETS1: rs1128334, P = 2.33×10−11, OR = 1.29; WDFY4: rs7097397, P = 8.15×10−12, OR = 1.30). ETS1 encodes for a transcription factor known to be involved in a wide range of immune functions, including Th17 cell development and terminal differentiation of B lymphocytes. SNP rs1128334 is located in the 3′-UTR of ETS1, and allelic expression analysis from peripheral blood mononuclear cells showed significantly lower expression level from the risk allele. WDFY4 is a conserved protein with unknown function, but is predominantly expressed in primary and secondary immune tissues, and rs7097397 in WDFY4 changes an arginine residue to glutamine (R1816Q) in this protein. Our study also confirmed association of the HLA locus, STAT4, TNFSF4, BLK, BANK1, IRF5, and TNFAIP3 with SLE in Asians. These new genetic findings may help us to gain a better understanding of the disease and the functions of the genes involved

Polymorphism at the TNF superfamily gene TNFSF4 confers susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem complex autoimmune disease of uncertain etiology (OMIM 152700). Over recent years a genetic component to SLE susceptibility has been established. Recent successes with association studies in SLE have identified genes including IRF5 (refs. 4,5) and FCGR3B. Two tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily members located within intervals showing genetic linkage with SLE are TNFSF4 (also known as OX40L; 1q25), which is expressed on activated antigen-presenting cells (APCs) and vascular endothelial cells, and also its unique receptor, TNFRSF4 (also known as OX40; 1p36), which is primarily expressed on activated CD4+ T cells. TNFSF4 produces a potent co-stimulatory signal for activated CD4+ T cells after engagement of TNFRSF4 (ref. 11). Using both a family-based and a case-control study design, we show that the upstream region of TNFSF4 contains a single risk haplotype for SLE, which is correlated with increased expression of both cell-surface TNFSF4 and the TNFSF4 transcript. We hypothesize that increased expression of TNFSF4 predisposes to SLE either by quantitatively augmenting T cell-APC interaction or by influencing the functional consequences of T cell activation via TNFRSF4

No association between E- and L-selectin genes and SLE: soluble L-selectin levels do correlate with genotype and a subset in SLE.

Altered function of selectin glycoprotein adhesion molecules may modulate severity and organ-specific manifestations of autoimmune and inflammatory disease via changes in leukocyte trafficking. Serum concentrations of selectin molecules have been suggested as useful biomarkers in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We identified increased levels of soluble L-selectin (sL-selectin), but not soluble E-selectin (sE-selectin) in 278 European-Caucasian lupus patients compared to 230 healthy siblings (P=0.002). sL-selectin levels were markedly elevated in patients with IgG antiphospholipid autoantibodies (P=0.002), suggesting that perhaps sL-selectin defines a subgroup of lupus with vasculopathy. sL-selectin level was also influenced by two L-selectin polymorphisms: 665C>T, F206L in the epidermal growth factor-like domain (P=0.015) and rs12938 in the 3'-untranslated region (P=0.06). Having shown increased sL-selectin levels in lupus patients, we used genetics to investigate whether this was a secondary phenomena or the result of an underlying genetic mechanism. The inheritance of nine single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) spanning the selectin locus was tested in 523 UK simplex SLE families. No association with SLE, or related phenotypes, was evident with any single SNP, or haplotype in family-based tests of association. Selectin polymorphisms are, therefore, unlikely to be independent factors in SLE susceptibility