1. Multiple Sclerosis Risk Allele in CLEC16A Acts as an Expression Quantitative Trait Locus for CLEC16A and SOCS1 in CD4+ T Cells.
- Author
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Leikfoss IS, Keshari PK, Gustavsen MW, Bjølgerud A, Brorson IS, Celius EG, Spurkland A, Bos SD, Harbo HF, and Berge T
- Subjects
- Adult, Alleles, Case-Control Studies, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lectins, C-Type metabolism, Middle Aged, Monosaccharide Transport Proteins metabolism, Multiple Sclerosis epidemiology, Multiple Sclerosis immunology, Risk Factors, Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling 1 Protein, Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling Proteins metabolism, Young Adult, CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes metabolism, Lectins, C-Type genetics, Monosaccharide Transport Proteins genetics, Multiple Sclerosis genetics, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling Proteins genetics
- Abstract
For multiple sclerosis, genome wide association studies and follow up studies have identified susceptibility single nucleotide polymorphisms located in or near CLEC16A at chromosome 16p13.13, encompassing among others CIITA, DEXI and SOCS1 in addition to CLEC16A. These genetic variants are located in intronic or intergenic regions and display strong linkage disequilibrium with each other, complicating the understanding of their functional contribution and the identification of the direct causal variant(s). Previous studies have shown that multiple sclerosis-associated risk variants in CLEC16A act as expression quantitative trait loci for CLEC16A itself in human pancreatic β-cells, for DEXI and SOCS1 in thymic tissue samples, and for DEXI in monocytes and lymphoblastoid cell lines. Since T cells are major players in multiple sclerosis pathogenesis, we have performed expression analyses of the CIITA-DEXI-CLEC16A-SOCS1 gene cluster in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells isolated from multiple sclerosis patients and healthy controls. We observed a higher expression of SOCS1 and CLEC16A in CD4+ T cells in samples homozygous for the risk allele of CLEC16A rs12927355. Pair-wise linear regression analysis revealed high correlation in gene expression in peripheral T cells of CIITA, DEXI, CLEC16A and SOCS1. Our data imply a possible regulatory role for the multiple sclerosis-associated rs12927355 in CLEC16A.
- Published
- 2015
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