Evolving clinical profile of IL-1β, IL-10 and CTLA-4 gene in rheumatoid factor positive Caucasian population

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a systemic autoimmune condition, causes joint damage and sometimes extra-articular lesions (cutaneous vasculitis, neuropathy, Felty’s syndrome, pericarditis, intersticial lung disease) that may be life threatening. The reason why extra-articular features will develop in rare RA patients is unknown. Our study was aimed to find any disease correlation with respect to a few genetic loci implicated in rheumatoid arthritis. In our study no significant association was observed for Il-1β and IL-10. However CTLA-4 showed polymorphism in RA and controls. In our earlier article we reported polymorphism of HLA-DRB1 in Caucasian population. The study was conducted on 60 patients, where 30 were control and 30 were diseased. All the patients selected for the study were Rf (rheumatoid factor) positive. Therefore the studies need to be conducted on larger group of patients, so that the association can be verified in Caucasian population (Indian scenario).