Familial psoriasis and HLA-B: unambiguous support for linkage in 97 published families

The existence of a psoriasis susceptibility locus, PSORS1 (HUGO/GDB-approved symbol), in or near the HLA region of chromosome 6 is strongly supported by a lod score analysis of HLA-B and psoriasis in 97 families from 16 published datasets. Families included in the dataset represent all the psoriasis families with usable HLA data that we could find in the published literature through May 1997. The recombination fraction between PSORS1 and HLA-B is estimated to be at or near 0.00, with a maximum two-point lod score of 23.7, assuming a dominant mode of inheritance with low (20%) penetrance at the PSORS1 locus. Although these families are geographically and ethnically diverse, there is no evidence for linkage heterogeneity at the HLA-linked locus in this analysis. We also conclude that the HLA-B17 allele, which is strongly associated with psoriasis, is unlikely itself to contribute directly to psoriasis susceptibility; rather, the HLA-B locus is probably tightly linked to the PSORS1 locus. Finally, we raise the possibility of a two-locus/heterogeneity model as one way to reconcile several findings in the literature.