Association study of IL2/IL21 and FcgRIIa:: significant association with the IL2/IL21 region in Scandinavian coeliac disease families

The first genome-wide association study performed in a UK coeliac disease (CD) case-control cohort revealed association with a linkage disequilibrium block containing the KIAA1109/Tenr/IL2/IL21 genes. Also recently, an association with a non-synonymous polymorphism in Fc gamma RIIa (CD32a) was reported in CD with an unusually strong P-value. We aimed to replicate the reported associations with the single nucleotide polymorphisms rs13119723 A>G and rs6822844 G>T in the KIAA1109/Tenr/IL2/IL21 region and rs1801274 G>A in the FcgRIIa gene in a family sample consisting of 325 Swedish/Norwegian families using the robust transmission disequilibrium test. The family sample used in this study included 100 families with two or more children affected by CD and 225 families with one affected child. We could confirm significant association between the polymorphisms rs13119723 A>G and rs6822844 G> T located in the KIAA1109/Tenr/IL2/IL21 region and CD (P-value 0.001 and 0.002, respectively). However, we found no association with the Fc gamma RIIa rs1801274 G> A polymorphism (P-value = 0.3). In conclusion, our results support the KIAA1109/Tenr/IL2/IL21 region as a true CD susceptibility region.