Microsatellite polymorphism between the tumor necrosis factor and HLA-B genes in Behçet's disease

Behçet's disease is associated with the HLA-B51 antigen. However, it has not yet been clarified if the HLA-B51 gene itself is the susceptibility gene related to this disease or if it is some other non-HLA gene in linkage disequilibrium with HLA-B51. Therefore, we screened one of the HSP70 genes, HUM70t (HSP70-Hom), around the class III region and the microsatellite sequence located between the HLA-B and TNF genes for genetic polymorphism in BD. A comparison between patients with BD and healthy controls revealed no significant difference in the frequency of the HUM70t polymorphism. In the microsatellite sequence, Tau-a, in the region between the HLA-B and TNF genes, the frequency of 14 repetitions of GT was increased significantly and that of 11 repetitions was decreased significantly in the patient group. Further, the allelic distributions of the B51 antigen-associated microsatellite polymorphism differed significantly between patients and healthy controls, and in the B51 antigen-negative subjects, analysis of the microsatellite polymorphism also revealed a significant difference in the haplotype frequency between the patient and control groups. These results suggest that the HLA-B51 gene may not be the primary locus responsible for BD, and implicate some other gene(s) located between the TNF and HLA-B genes.