Polymorphisms in the PTPN22 region are associated with psoriasis of early onset

Background: Psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease, affects approximately 2% of the population worldwide. Although the aetiology of psoriasis is poorly understood, patients with disease of early onset (Type I, age of onset ≤ 40 years) usually have a strong genetic component to the disease. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the protein tyrosine phosphatase nonreceptor type 22 (PTPN22) gene region in susceptibility to Type I psoriasis. Patients and methods: Thirteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) mapping to the PTPN22 region were genotyped in 647 patients with Type I psoriasis and 566 normal controls. Results: The rs2476601 (R620W) SNP, widely associated with other inflammatory autoimmune diseases, showed no evidence of association with susceptibility to Type I psoriasis. Two SNPs (rs1217414 and rs3789604) demonstrated significant association with Type I psoriasis and were subsequently genotyped in a further 253 unrelated patients and 2024 normal controls. rs1217414 and rs3789604 were also significantly associated with Type I psoriasis in the combined datasets (P = 0.003 and P = 0.0002, respectively); furthermore carriage of both risk alleles was also significantly associated (P = 0.002). Conclusions: This study demonstrates evidence of association of two SNPs (rs1217414 and rs3789604) in the PTPN22 region with Type I psoriasis, providing evidence for a role of this gene in Type I psoriasis that is not conferred by the R620W variant previously associated with a number of inflammatory diseases. © 2008 The Authors.