Family linkage study of the T-cell receptor genes in coeliac disease

Background. The susceptibility to coeliac disease is genetically determined by possession of certain HLA De alleles, together with a one or more non-H LA genes. The central role of the T-cell receptor in disease pathogenesis m akes the T-cell receptor genes strong candidates as disease susceptibility genes, and previous studies had provided equivocal ambiguous results. Methods. A pedigree based genetic linkage study, was used to determine if a ny of the T-cell receptor genes have a role in the genetic aetiology of coe liac disease. Intragenic microsatellite markers were used to study T-cell r eceptor alpha, beta, and delta, while gamma was studied using two flanking microsatellites D7S484 and D7S629. Results, Conventional linkage analysis was performed using the MLINK comput er package. Model-free linkage analysis was performed using MFLINK. No evid ence of linkage between coeliac disease and the T-cell receptor genes was f ound in these pedigrees. Conclusions. Mutations in the T-cell receptor genes are not implicated in t he genetic aetiology of coeliac disease.