The genetics of Graves' disease

Population-based case control and family-based candidate gene studies have identified an important role in the development of Graves' disease for the human leukocyte antigen region on chromosome 6p21 and the cytotoxic T-lymph ocyte-associated antigen 4 gene region on chromosome 2q33. Genome-wide sear ches also have revealed three chromosomal regions of linkage to Graves' dis ease, including chromosome 14q31 (GD-1), chromosome 20q11.2 (GD-2), and the X chromosome at Xq21,33-22 (GD-3), harboring a number of novel candidate g enes for Graves' disease that have yet to be tested in further data sets. A s more detailed genetic maps emerge, with locations of more candidate genes , the identification of all susceptibility loci for Craves' disease becomes a realistic goal.