Meta and pooled analysis of European coeliac disease data

Four full genome scans have been carried out by the partners of the European cluster on coeliac disease as well as follow-up studies of candidate regions. No region outside HLA showed significant linkage to the disease in any single study. We first applied a meta-analysis based on a modification of Genome Screen Meta-Analysis to take into account the different linkage statistics, the arbitrariness of bin cutoff points, as well as the sample size of each study. We then performed a pooled linkage analysis of all families and raw genotypes. Besides the HLA region, already known to harbour a risk factor for coeliac disease, both approaches leave very little doubt on the presence of a genetic risk factor in the 5q31-33 region. This region was suggested by several individual studies, but did not reach statistical values high enough to be conclusive when data sets were analysed separately.