In the first cohort of patients with pSS, the A allele of the
CTLA-4 +49A/G polymorphism was found on 73% of chromosomes in patients with pSS, in comparison with 66% in controls (
p = 0.036, odds ratio (OR) 1.41, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02 to 1.95; Table
1). No significant difference in
CTLA-4 +49A/G*A allele frequencies was observed among subgroups of patients according to their anti-SSB and/or anti-SSA status (Table
1). No difference in
CTLA-4 CT60 allelic or genotypic distribution was observed between patients (
n = 142) and controls (
n = 241).
CTLA-4 (+49A/G or CT60) haplotype distribution mirrored the
CTLA-4 +49A/G*A allele excess among patients with pSS (A/A 48%, A/G 26%, G/G 26%, G/A 0.4%; in comparison with A/A 45%, A/G 21%, G/G 34% among controls), leading to an excess of +49A/G*A allele carrier haplotypes among patients (
p = 0.03, OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.95).
Table 1
Allellic frequencies of CTLA-4 49A/G polymorphism among patient controls
Cohort 1 | n = 142 | n = 47 | n = 43 | n = 90 | n = 52 | | | pSS vs controls |
A (Thr) | 208 (73) | 68 (72) | 61 (71) | 129 (72) | 79 (76) | 318 (66) | 0.036 | 1.41 (1.02–1.95) |
G (Ala) | 76 (27) | 26 (28) | 25 (29) | 51 (28) | 25 (24) | 164 (34) | 0.036 | 0.70 (0.51–0.98) |
Cohort 2 | n = 139 | n = 52 | n = 49 | n = 101 | n = 38 | Controls (n = 241) | | |
A (Thr) | 173 (62) | 59 (57) | 66 (67) | 125 (62) | 48 (63) | 318 (66) | NS | 0.85 (0.62–1.15) |
G (Ala) | 105 (38) | 45 (43) | 32 (33) | 77 (38) | 28 (37) | 164 (34) | NS | 1.17 (0.86–1.60) |
Total | n = 281 | n = 99 | n = 92 | n = 191 | n = 90 | Controls (n = 241) | | |
A (Thr) | 381 (68) | 127 (64) | 127 (69) | 254 (66) | 127 (71) | 318 (66) | NS | 1.08 (0.84–1.40) |
G (Ala) | 181 (32) | 71 (36) | 57 (31) | 128 (34) | 53 (29) | 164 (34) | NS | 0.92 (0.71–1.19) |
To avoid the possibility of a false positive association of
CTLA-4 +49A/G*A with pSS as a result of the somewhat small sample size of our first cohort, and because the
CTLA-4 +49A/G*A allele has been only marginally associated with autoimmune diseases compared with the
CTLA-4 +49A/G*G allele [
1], we performed a replication study on a second independent cohort of 139 patients with pSS. In this second cohort, the
CTLA-4 +49A/G*A allele was found on 62% of chromosomes in patients with pSS, compared with 66% in controls (
p = 0.30; OR 0.85, 95% CI 0.63 to 1.16; Table
1). Thus, the
CTLA-4 +49A/G*A allele excess among patients with pSS from the first cohort was counterbalanced by its under-representation in the second cohort. When the results from the patients in both cohorts were pooled (
n = 281), there was no difference in
CTLA-4 +49A/G polymorphism allelic or genotypic distribution in comparison with controls (
p = 0.53, OR 1.09, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.4; Table
1). The sex ratios among patients (0.97) and controls (0.06) were different. We therefore investigated
CTLA-4 +49A/G polymorphism genotypic distribution among males and females in the control group and found that it was not statistically different (
p = 0.1), thus excluding any possible gender effect.