Is the Gender Difference in As Linked to IL-23?

Johannes Nossent¹ and Gunnstein Bakland^2,3, ¹Medicine, University of Western Australia, WA, Australia, ²Dept. of Rheumatology, University Hospital Northern Norway, Tromsø, Norway, ³University of Tromsø, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Meeting: 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

Date of first publication: September 29, 2015

Keywords: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and spondylarthritis, Gene Expression

Session Information

Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Title: Spondylarthropathies and Psoriatic Arthritis Pathogenesis, Etiology Poster I

Session Type: ACR Poster Session C

Session Time: 9:00AM-11:00AM

Background/Purpose:

Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) has traditionally been portrayed as a disease where male patients outnumber female patients by a factor 3 to 4. It has also been suggested that female patients have a less severe disease course and a longer diagnostic delay due to a more protracted radiological progression. We wanted evaluate several SNPs with an acknowledged association to AS to identify a possible influence of gender on the distribution among patients.

Methods:

We identified 306 patients with AS according to the modified New York criteria in a population of northern European descent (Northern Norway). The distribution of 10 different SNPs where evaluated in the population using Taqman RT-PCR. These SNPs were describing variation in ERAP-1, IL-1, TNF and IL-23R The statistical analyses where performed using SNPstats (http://bioinfo.iconcologia.net/SNPstats).

Results:

We could only find a correlation to gender within the IL-23R-gene, and only two SNPs (rs11209032 and rs10489629) in the IL23R-gene showed a distribution significantly associated with gender, p=0.016 and 0.026 respectively. There was no association with the examined SNPs from ERAP1, IL1 or TNF. We could not find a correlation between IL-23 levels and SNP distribution.

Conclusion:

Our data suggest that a variation of rs11209032 and rs10489629 is associated with gender distribution in AS. Considering IL23 has been identified as a cytokine central to active inflammation in enthesitis, this could be the link to the observed gender difference in AS. To our knowledge, this correlation has not previously been reported. However, studies reporting on radiographic progression in AS find that male patients have a more rapid progression and pronounced tendency to syndesmophyte formation. We suggest that this observation might be linked to IL23, but future studies are needed. Given the difference in gender distribution reported in radiographic and non-radiographic axial Spondyloarthritis, this could be a population where a study of IL-23/IL-23R could bring further understanding to the pathogenesis of the spondyloarthritidis.

Disclosure: J. Nossent, None; G. Bakland, None.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Nossent J, Bakland G. Is the Gender Difference in As Linked to IL-23? [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2015; 67 (suppl 10). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/is-the-gender-difference-in-as-linked-to-il-23/. Accessed .

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