Reply to Liu et al.: Translation of rat congenic data to humans on a conserved MHC-III haplotype associated with rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-related phenotype/genotype correlations are important in study of autoimmune disorders. We previously identified a conserved 33-kb haplotype comprising five genes, lymphotoxin-α (Lta), Tnf, lymphotoxin-β (Ltb), leukocyte-specific transcript 1 (Lst1), and natural cytotoxicity-triggering receptor 3 (Ncr3), in the MHC class-III region regulating arthritis in rats (1). In our study, higher Ltb and Ncr3 expression and lower Lst1 expression correlate with reduced arthritis severity in rats (1). Following these findings, we compared expression of these genes in a cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and healthy controls and found that the expression of LTB, LST1, and NCR3 was higher in RA cases, but patients with mild RA showed higher NCR3 expression and …