Interaction analysis of the CBLB and CTLA4 genes in type 1 diabetes.

Gene-gene interaction analyses have been suggested as a potential strategy to help identify common disease susceptibility genes. Recently, evidence of a statistical interaction between polymorphisms in two negative immunoregulatory genes, CBLB and CTLA4, has been reported in type 1 diabetes (T1D). This study, in 480 Danish families, reported an association between T1D and a synonymous coding SNP in exon 12 of the CBLB gene (rs3772534 G>A; minor allele frequency, MAF=0.24; derived relative risk, RR for G allele=1.78; P=0.046). Furthermore, evidence of a statistical interaction with the known T1D susceptibility-associated CTLA4 polymorphism rs3087243 (laboratory name CT60, G>A) was reported (P<0.0001), such that the CBLB SNP rs3772534 G allele was overtransmitted to offspring with the CTLA4 rs3087243 G/G genotype. We have, therefore, attempted to obtain additional support for this finding in both large family and case-control collections. In a primary analysis, no evidence for an association of the CBLB SNP rs3772534 with disease was found in either sample set (2162 parent-child trios, P=0.33; 3453 cases and 3655 controls, P=0.69). In the case-only statistical interaction analysis between rs3772534 and rs3087243, there was also no support for an effect (1994 T1D affected offspring, and 3215 cases, P=0.92). These data highlight the need for large, well-characterized populations, offering the possibility of obtaining additional support for initial observations owing to the low prior probability of identifying reproducible evidence of gene-gene interactions in the analysis of common disease-associated variants in human populations.

No evidence for a major effect of two common polymorphisms of the catalase gene in type 1 diabetes susceptibility.

BACKGROUND: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a multifactorial disease, the genetic analysis of which has yielded few true positive linkage and association results. Replication of association in independent, large-sample studies is essential to further identify the genes involved in T1D. Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the catalase gene have been reported to be associated with T1D. METHODS: Major effects of two SNPs, C1167T (rs769217) and C(-262)T (rs1001179), of the catalase gene on T1D susceptibility have been reported previously in Russians from Moscow. We genotyped C1167T and C(-262)T in large family (1642 families) and British case-control (3530 cases and 3930 controls) collections and tested for association with T1D. RESULTS: We found no evidence of an association between T1D and C1167T or C(-262)T in either the family or case-control collections, or for the D11S2008 microsatellite polymorphism in families. However, we did find limited statistical evidence of an association at C1167T in USA families (P = 0.033; RR for 1167C = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.02-1.49) and C(-262)T in UK families (P = 0.046; RR for (-262)C = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.75-0.99). CONCLUSION: We found no evidence for a major effect of C1167T or C(-262)T on T1D susceptibility in two large sample collections. Limited statistical evidence of an association at C1167T in USA families and C(-262)T in UK families was found, but these results are likely to be false positives. The previously reported association of these SNPs may also have been a false positive, or a population specific association in Russians from Moscow.