Identification of I kappa BL as the second major histocompatibility complex-linked susceptibility locus for rheumatoid arthritis.

ABSTRACT: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory joint disease with a complex etiology in which environmental factors within a genetically susceptible host maneuver the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system toward recognition of autoantigens. This ultimately leads to joint destruction and clinical symptomatology. Despite the identification of a number of disease-susceptibility regions across the genome, RA's major genetic linkage remains with the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which contains not only the key immune-response class I and class II genes but also a host of other loci, some with potential immunological relevance. Inside the MHC itself, the sole consistent RA association is that with HLA-DRB1, although this does not encode all MHC-related susceptibility. Inde

SUBMITTER: Okamoto K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC379224 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature