Affiliations: Laboratorio de Inmunología, Departamento de Fisiología,
Departamento de Fisiología, Centro
Universitario de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara,
Jalisco, México | Doctorado en Ciencias Biomédicas, Departamento de Fisiología, Centro
Universitario de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara,
Jalisco, México | Departamento de Biología Molecular y
Genómica, Centro Universitario de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de
Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, México
Note: [] Corresponding author: María Guadalupe Ramírez
Dueñas, Laboratorio de Inmunología. Departamento de
Fisiología. Centro Universitario de Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad de
Guadalajara. Calle Sierra Mojada No. 950, Colonia Independencia, Guadalajara,
Jalisco, C.P. 44340. México. Tel.: +52 33 10 58 53 07; E-mail:
mgramirezd@gmail.com
Abstract: Objective: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune and chronic
inflammatory disease of unknown etiology. Killer cell immunoglobulin-like
receptors are expressed on the surface of natural killer cells and CD28null
T-cells, both present in synovial membrane of RA. Therefore we evaluated the
associations of KIR genes with RA. Methods: 16 KIR genes were genotyped in 100 healthy subjects (HS)
and 100 RA patients from Western Mexico using PCR-SSP. Differences in KIR
genotypes and gene frequencies were assessed using the X^{2}
test. Results: Gene frequency of KIR2DL3 was lower in RA than in HS (p=
0.0019), whereas KIR2DL2 and KIR2DS2 were higher in RA than HS (p =0.0004 and p
= 0.0487, respectively). In addition were identified 38 genotypes (from G1-G38)
in both studied groups, and the genotype frequencies of G1, G6 and G14 showed
significant differences (p =0.0001, p =0.0208 and p =0.0300, respectively).
Conclusions: The presence of KIR2DL2, KIR2DS2 and absence of KIR2DL3
are associated with RA. Moreover, two genotypes BX are associated with RA.
These results suggest that KIRs can be involved in RA susceptibility.
