Systemic lupus erythematosus with nephritis is strongly associated with the TNFB∗2 homozygote in the Korean population

Abstract To evaluate the association of TNFB Nco I polymorphism with SLE in the Korean population, we investigated the frequencies of the TNFB and HLA-DRB1 alleles in 281 controls and 97 SLE patients, including 56 patients with nephritis and 41 patients without nephritis. The frequency of the TNFB ∗ 2 homozygote in SLE was significantly increased over controls (43.3% vs 28.5%, RR = 1.9, p p ∗ 02 and ∗ 03 (30.9% vs 18.2%, RR = 2.0, p p ∗ 1 and HLA-DRB 1 ∗ 13, and between TNFB*2 and the particular DRB1 allele: ∗ 15, ∗ 04, and ∗ 07 in controls and/or in SLE patients. After stratification for each HLA-DRB1 allele, SLE with nephritis showed a higher frequency of TNFB ∗ 2 homozygote compared with the corresponding controls in DRB1 ∗ 15, ∗ 08, and ∗ 09 positives. Our results suggest that the TNFB ∗ 2 homozygote may be a strong susceptibility gene of SLE with nephritis in the Korean population.