The susceptibility to develop coeliac disease (CD) has a strong genetic com
ponent, which is not entirely explained, by HLA associations. Two previous
genome wide linkage studies have been performed to identify additional loci
outside this region. These studies both used a sib-pair design and produce
d conflicting results.
Our aim is to identify non-MHC genetic loci contributing to coeliac disease
using a family based linkage study. We performed a genome wide search in 1
6 highly informative multiply affected pedigrees using 400 microsatellite m
arkers with an average spacing of 10 cM. Linkage analysis was performed usi
ng lod score and model free methods.
We identified two new potential susceptibility loci with loci scores of 1.9
, at 10q23.1, and 16q23.3. Significant, but lower lod scores were found for
6q14 (1.2), 11p11 (1.5), and 19q13.4 (0.9); areas implicated in a previous
genome wide study. Lod scores of 0.9 were obtained for both D7S507, which
lies 1 cM from the gammaT-cell receptor gene, and for D2S364, which lies 12
cM from the CTLA4 gene.