Evidence that deletion at FCGR3B is a risk factor for systemic sclerosis
Genes and Immunity, 05/11/2012
McKinney C et al. – Although requiring replication, these results suggest that impaired immune complex clearance arising from FCGR3B deficiency contributes to the pathology of systemic sclerosis (SSc), and FCGR3B copy number (CN) variation is a common risk factor for systemic autoimmunity.
Methods- The authors hypothesised that FCGR3B gene dosage influences susceptibility to SSc.
- The authors obtained FCGR3B deletion status in 777 European Caucasian cases and 1000 controls.
- There was an inverse relationship between FCGR3B CN and disease susceptibility.
- CN of 1 was a significant risk factor for SSc (OR=1.55 (1.13–2.14), P=0.007) relative to CN2.
