Tumour necrosis factor microsatellites and HLA-DRB1*, HLA-DQA1*, and HLA-DQB1* alleles in Peruvian patients with rheumatoid arthritis

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Abstract
OBJECTIVE To study the association between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and HLA and tumour necrosis factor (TNF) polymorphism in Peruvian mestizo patients in comparison with ethnically similar controls. METHODS Seventy nine patients with RA and 65 ethnically matched healthy controls were genotyped for HLA-DRB1, HLA-DQA1, HLA-DQB1, and TNFα and TNFβ alleles using PCR amplification. Clinical severity was assessed as mild, moderate, or severe in 35 of the patients. RESULTS TNFα6 showed the strongest association with disease susceptibility. The TNFα6 allele was more common in patients than in controls (pCONCLUSIONS This study shows for the first time that TNF gene polymorphism is associated with susceptibility to RA in a non-white population. TNFα6 and HLA-DRB1*1402 independently conferred significantly increased risk in Peruvian mestizo patients.