Association of MICA Alleles and Human Leukocyte Antigen B in Turkish Patients Diagnosed With Behçet's Disease
Nilnur EYERCİ1, Eda BALKAN2, Necmettin AKDENİZ3, Sadullah KELEŞ4
1Department of Medical Biology, Medicine Faculty of Kafkas University, Kars, Turkey
2Department of Medical Biology, Medicine Faculty of Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey
3Department of Dermatology, Medicine Faculty of İstanbul Medeniyet University, İstanbul, Turkey
4Department of Ophtalmology, Medicine Faculty of Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey
Keywords: Behçet’s disease, HLA-B*51, MICA, MICA*006, MICA*009
Abstract
Objectives: This study aims to investigate whether or not MHC class I polypeptide-related sequence A (MICA) polymorphisms are associated with the susceptibility to Behçet’s disease (BD) in a Turkish population.
Patients and methods: The study included 38 Turkish BD patients (20 males, 18 females; mean age 34±10.9 years) and 51 ethnically matched healthy controls (30 males, 21 females; mean age 36±12.8 years). MICA and human leukocyte antigen B (HLA-B) alleles were determined in all subjects by using the Luminex technology. LABType sequence-specific oligonucleotide MICA test (One Lambda) and sequence-specific oligonucleotide B locus tests (Gene-Probe) were used for the typing studies.
Results: A total of 16 MICA alleles were found in BD patients as well as in control subjects. The gene frequency of MICA*006 was significantly higher in the BD patients compared to controls (14.5% vs. 0.9%; odds ratio [OR]: 17.092 95% confidence interval [CI] [2.155~135.554]; p<0.05). When haplotypes were evaluated, an association was found between the haplotypes HLA-B*51-MICA*006 (11.8% and 0.9%; OR: 13.567 95% CI [1.679~109.577]; p<0.001) and HLA-B*51-MICA*009 (27.6% and 13.7%; OR: 2.4 95% CI [1.127~5.109]; p<0.05). Frequencies of HLA-B*49-MICA*004 (0% and 6.8%) and HLA-B*52- MICA*009 (0% and 10.7%) were significantly higher in controls compared to BD patients (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Our study shows that the MICA*006 (MICA-A6) and the MICA*009 alleles are associated with BD susceptibility in HLA-B*51 positive Turkish population, particularly in HLA-B*51 patients with MICA*006, which might be considered as a diagnostic biomarker for BD in the future.
Citation: Eyerci N, Balkan E, Akdeniz N, Keleş S. Association of MICA Alleles and Human Leukocyte Antigen B in Turkish Patients Diagnosed With Behçet's Disease. Arch Rheumatol 2018;33(3):352-357.
The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.
This study was supported by the Ataturk University Scientific Research Projects (grant number: 2011/11).