Role of the CCR5/Δ32CCR5 polymorphism in biopsy-proven giant cell arteritis.

To further explore the potential role of chemokines in giant cell arteritis (GCA), we have studied whether the CCR5/Δ32CCR5 polymorphism is implicated in the susceptibility to the disease and its specific features. A total of 352 Spanish patients with biopsy-proven GCA and 479 matched controls were assessed. DNA was obtained from peripheral blood. Samples were genotyped by PCR with specific primers spanning the 32-bp deletion region. No statistically significant difference in the Δ32CCR5 allele frequency between GCA patients (6.1%) and controls (6.8%) was observed (p = 0.58). This was also the case when the CCR5 /Δ32CCR5 genotype distribution was assessed (p = 0.49). The Δ32CCR5 allele frequency did not differ between patients with or without specific manifestations of the disease, such as polymyalgia rheumatica, visual ischemic manifestations, or irreversible occlusive disease. Hence, our results do not support a potential influence of Δ32CCR5 in the susceptibility to or clinical spectrum of GCA.