Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 gene polymorphisms in Behcet's disease

Objective. Intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) is strongly expressed in vascular endothelial cells and perivascular inflammatory infiltrates in immunopathologic studies of Behcet's disease (BD) lesions. ICAM-1 genes ma y contribute to the inflammatory events responsible for the vessel damage i n BD. We examined potential associations of ICAM-1 gene polymorphisms with BD susceptibility. Methods. Case patients were 74 consecutive Italian patients with ED who wer e followed at the Bologna, Ferrara, Milano, Potenza, Prate, Reggio Emilia, and Trento rheumatology, ophthalmology, and neurology units over a 3 year p eriod (1997-99) who satisfied the International Study Group criteria for BD ; 228 healthy Italian blood donors from the same geographic areas were sele cted as control groups. All BD patients and controls were genotyped by poly merase chain reaction and allele-specific oligonucleotide techniques for IC AM-1 polymorphisms at codon 241 (exon it) and codon 469 (exon 6). Results. The frequency of R241 was significantly higher in BD patients than in controls (20.3% vs 5.7%; p = 0.001, p(corr) = 0.002, OR 4.2, 95% CI 1.9 -9.3). The distribution of E/K 469 genotype was similar in patients and con trols. Comparing patients with different clinical features, we found only a trend to higher frequency of R241 in patients with articular manifestation s (21.4% vs 12.5%; p = 0.08). Conclusion. Our findings show that G/R 241 polymorphism of ICAM-1 is associ ated with BD susceptibility.