[The connection between HLA microsatellites and HLA-B*27 gene in patients with psoriatic arthritis in Croatian population].

The polymorphism at HLA microsatellites (D6S248, D6S2674, D6S2811 and D6S273) among patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) (N = 22) and healthy control subjects (K; N = 94), as well as haplotypic associations between tested loci were analysed in this study. All subjects were previously typed for HLA-A and -B by PCR-SSP method and were HLA-B*27 positive. HLA microsatellites were analysed using PCR-STR method and electrophoresis in an ALFexpress sequencer. The results demonstrated statistically significant P value for following alleles: D6S273-3 (PsA-21.1% vs. K-4.9%; P = 0.0013) and D6S273-4 (PsA-15.8% vs. K-32.1%; P = 0.0180). Analysis of haplotypic associations showed the only statistically significant difference for combination HLA-B*27/D6S273-4 (PsA-10.5% vs. K-40.2%; P = 0.0164). The results presented in this study lead to the assumption that some other gene/s involved in ethiology of PsA are located in the proximity of D6S273 microsatellite, but in order to reach a final conclusion, an increase in the number of patients is necessary.