SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS WITH NEPHRITIS IS STRONGLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE TNFB-ASTERISK-2 HOMOZYGOTE IN THE KOREAN POPULATION

To evaluate the association of TNFB NcoI polymorphism with SLE in the Korean population, are investigated the frequencies of the TNFB and HL A-DRB1 alleles in 281 controls and 97 SLE patients, including 56 patie nts with nephritis and 41 patients without nephritis. The frequency of the TNFB2 homozygote in SLE was significantly increased over control s (43.3% vs 28.5%, RR = 1.9, p < 0.01). In SLE with nephritis, the TNF B2 homozygote was more significantly increased (57.1% vs 28.5%, RR = 3.4, p < 0.0001), whereas there was no significant difference between SLE without nephritis and controls. The study of HLA-DRB1 alleles reve aled the increased frequencies of DRB102 and *03 (30.9% vs 18.2%, RR = 2.0, p < 0.01; 8.2% vs 2.1%, RR = 4.1, p < 0.05). There was no signi ficantly different distribution of HLA-DRB1 alleles between SLE patien ts with nephritis and without nephritis. We found positive LD between TNFB1 and HLA-DRB1*13, and between TNFB*2 and the particular DRB1 all ele: 15, *04, and *07 in controls and/or in SLE patients. After strat ification for each HLA-DRB1 allele, SLE with nephritis showed a higher frequency of TNFB2 homozygote compared with the corresponding contro ls in DRB115, *08, and *09 positives. Our results suggest that the TN FB2 homozygote may be a strong susceptibility gene of SLE with nephri tis in the Korean population.