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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.

Galectin-3 is a beta-galactoside-binding lectin which is involved in modulating inflammation and apoptosis. Elevated expression of galectin-3 has been demonstrated in synovium of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of our study is to investigate the genetic polymorphisms of galectin-3 in association with RA. Polymorphisms of galectin-3 gene (LGALS3) were compared between 151 RA patients and 182 healthy subjects in Taiwan. Variants at two LGALS3 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sites (rs4644 and rs4652, corresponding to LAGLS3 +191 and +292) were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe hybridization, respectively. The allelic carriage of LGALS3 +292C was increased in patients with RA (66.9% in RA vs. 52.7% in controls, odds ratio = 1.8, 95% confidence interval = 1.2–2.8, p = 0.009). These results implicate that the genetic polymorphisms in galectin-3 gene may contribute to development of RA.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is frequently associated with anti-SSA/Ro and anti-SSB/La autoantibodies. The objective of this study is to examine the prevalence of anti-SSA/Ro and anti-SSB/La autoantibodies in HCV-infected patients and their possible associations with HLA-DRB1 polymorphism in Chinese patients in Taiwan. About 288 HCV-infected patients were recruited for autoantibody detection and HLA-DRB1 typing. Anti-SSA/Ro and anti-SSB/La autoantibodies were detected in 12.8 and 9.7% of HCV-infected patients. Anti-SSA/Ro antibody was positively associated with age over 55 [p = 0.04; odds ratio = 2.17; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.03–4.57]. Anti-SSB/La antibody was negatively associated with HLA-DR2 carriage (p = 0.024; odds ratio = 0.30; 95% CI, 0.10–0.90). No significant correlation was found between autoantibody production and gender, autoimmune manifestation, presence of cirrhosis, or hepatocellular carcinoma in HCV infection. In conclusion, anti-SSA/Ro and anti-SSB/La antibodies present frequently in HCV-infected patients. Anti-SSB/La antibody is negatively associated with HLA-DR2 in HCV-infected patients in Taiwan.