TY - JOUR T1 - Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 gene polymorphisms in Behçet's Disease. JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 1283 LP - 1287 VL - 28 IS - 6 AU - L Boiardi AU - C Salvarani AU - B Casali AU - I Olivieri AU - G Ciancio AU - F Cantini AU - F Salvi AU - R Malatesta AU - M Govoni AU - F Trotta AU - D Filippini AU - G Paolazzi AU - D Nicoli AU - E Farnetti AU - L Macchioni Y1 - 2001/06/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/28/6/1283.abstract N2 - OBJECTIVE: Intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) is strongly expressed in vascular endothelial cells and perivascular inflammatory infiltrates in immunopathologic studies of Behçet's disease (BD) lesions. ICAM-1 genes may contribute to the inflammatory events responsible for the vessel damage in BD. We examined potential associations of ICAM-1 gene polymorphisms with BD susceptibility. METHODS: Case patients were 74 consecutive Italian patients with BD who were followed at the Bologna, Ferrara, Milano, Potenza, Prato, Reggio Emilia, and Trento rheumatology, ophthalmology, and neurology units over a 3 year period (1997-99) who satisfied the International Study Group criteria for BD; 228 healthy Italian blood donors from the same geographic areas were selected as control groups. All BD patients and controls were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction and allele-specific oligonucleotide techniques for ICAM-1 polymorphisms at codon 241 (exon 4) and codon 469 (exon 6). RESULTS: The frequency of R241 was significantly higher in BD patients than in controls (20.3% vs 5.7%; p = 0.001, pcorr = 0.002, OR 4.2, 95% CI 1.9-9.3). The distribution of E/K 469 genotype was similar in patients and controls. Comparing patients with different clinical features, we found only a trend to higher frequency of R241 in patients with articular manifestations (21.4% vs 12.5%; p = 0.08). CONCLUSION: Our findings show that G/R 241 polymorphism of ICAM-1 is associated with BD susceptibility. ER -