%0 Journal Article %A Marthe T. Maehlen %A Gry B. Nordang %A Silje W. Syversen %A Désirée M. van der Heijde %A Tore K. Kvien %A Till Uhlig %A Benedicte A. Lie %T FCRL3 ‒169C/C Genotype Is Associated with Anti-citrullinated Protein Antibody-positive Rheumatoid Arthritis and with Radiographic Progression %D 2011 %R 10.3899/jrheum.110489 %J The Journal of Rheumatology %P jrheum.110489 %X Objective Studies of Caucasian populations have shown conflicting results concerning the association between a promoter polymorphism –169T>C of the Fc receptor-like 3 (FCRL3) gene and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It is unknown whether FCRL3 is associated with autoantibody status and disease severity. We investigated associations between FCRL3 –169T>C and autoantibody status and joint damage in patients with RA. Methods A total of 652 Norwegian patients with RA from 2 cohorts and 981 Norwegian controls, previously genotyped for FCRL3 –169T>C (rs7528684), were studied. Data on anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) and rheumatoid factor (RF) were available. The EURIDISS cohort (disease duration ≤ 4 yrs at baseline) was followed longitudinally, with assessment of radiographic hand damage at baseline and after 10 years (n = 117) according to the van der Heijde-modified Sharp score. Results We found significant associations with ACPA-positive RA for both the C allele (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.08–1.52, p = 0.004) and the C/C genotype (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.18–2.10, p = 0.002). Similar associations were seen with RF-positive RA. No association was found with ACPA-negative or RF-negative RA. The C/C genotype was found to be associated with 10-year radiographic progression in multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses, after adjustment for ACPA, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, age, and sex. Conclusion The promoter polymorphism of FCRL3 was associated with autoantibody-positive RA. Despite the low number of patients, the C/C genotype of the FCRL3 polymorphism consistently and independently predicted radiographic progression. These findings suggest that FCRL3 is involved in both disease susceptibility and progression. %U https://www.jrheum.org/content/jrheum/early/2011/08/30/jrheum.110489.full.pdf