SLC11A1 polymorphisms in inflammatory bowel disease and Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis status

AIM: To test for association of SLC11A1 with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) status in a Caucasian cohort. METHODS: Five hundred and seven Crohn’s disease (CD) patients, 474 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients, and 569 healthy controls were genotyped for SLC11A1 1730G>A and SLC11A1 469+14G>C using pre-designed TaqMan  SNP assays. χ 2 tests were applied to test for association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with disease, and the presence of MAP DNA.RESULTS:SLC11A1 1730G>A and SLC11A 1469+14G>C were not associated with CD, UC, or IBD. The SLC11A1 1730A minor allele was over-represented in patients who did not require immunomodulator therapy (P = 0.002, OR: 0.29, 95% CI: 0.13-0.66). The frequency of the SLC11A1 469+14C allele was higher in the subset of study participants who tested positive for MAP DNA (P = 0.02, OR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.06-2.29). No association of SLC11A1 1730G>A with MAP was observed.CONCLUSION: Although SLC11A1 was not associated with IBD, association with MAP suggests that SLC11A1 is important in determining susceptibility to bacteria implicated in the etiology of CD.