Association of TLR4 polymorphisms with Behcet's disease in a Korean population

HLA-B51 is strongly associated with Behçet's disease (BD) in any ethnic background. We recently reported that another gene, Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4) is also implicated in BD in a Japanese population. To confirm these results, we investigated polymorphisms in the TLR4 gene in Korean patients with BD.

In this study, 119 patients with BD and 141 healthy controls were enrolled; every participant was a Korean. Nine single nucleotide polymorphisms previously detected in TLR4 by direct sequencing were analysed for an association with BD.

The most frequent haplotype, TAGCGGTAA, was significantly increased in HLA-B*51-positive BD patients (49.5%), compared with healthy control participants [32.3%; P = 0.029; odds ratio (OR) = 2.01; 95% CI 1.25-3.23]. This haplotype was also significantly increased in BD patients with arthritis (48.2%; P = 0.003; OR = 1.96; 95% CI 1.26-3.26). There were no significant differences in the allele and genotype frequencies of patients and controls for each single nucleotide polymorphism.

The haplotype of TLR4 may increase the risk for developing BD and the complication of arthritis in the Korean population.