Genetic markers of rheumatoid arthritis in a Western Cape black and coloured population

• Main Author: Pokorny, Ljubica
• Other Authors: Truter, E. J.
• Language: en
• Published: Cape Technikon 2016
• Subjects: Rheumatoid arthritis > South Africa > Western Cape; Rheumatoid arthritis > Genetic aspects; Genetic markers
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/2249

Thesis (MTech (Medical Technology))--Cape Technikon, 1996. === Intensive investigations in many different populations over the last decade, have indicated a failure to understand the inheritance of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It was hoped that genes within the class II region of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) could shed some light on the inheritance of this autoimmune disease and which are now known without doubt, to confer susceptibility to the disease. Genetic studies of RA have concentrated primarily on its autoimmune nature and several investigations of MHC class II molecules, have demonstrated an association between specific HLA alleles and susceptibility to RA, in particular the DRB1 *04 and DRB1 *01 alleles. The HLA system is known to be associated with many diseases involving an immune aetiology. The structural features of specific DR and DQ genes give clues to the molecular mechanisms by which these alleles are associated with RA. It has been found by many investigators that there is more than one susceptibility allele for RA at the DRB1 locus. Questions arise whether the DRB1 molecule itself directly contributes to the pathogenesis of RA and why some DRB1 genes carrying DRBI *04 alleles, are not associated with RA.