CC chemokine receptor polymorphism CCR5Δ32 in Portuguese Behçet's disease patients.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate whether CCR5 deletion is associated with susceptibility to Behçet's disease (BD) in a Portuguese population.

METHODS

A total of 122 BD patients and 227 ethnically-matched controls were studied. Genotyping of the CCR5Δ32 polymorphisms was performed using polymerase chain reaction product sizing.

RESULTS

No significant differences were observed in the allelic frequencies of CCR532 between patients and controls (OR=0.820; p=0.512). Stratification for gender and for the presence of HLA-B*51 did not reveal any significant differences.

CONCLUSIONS

These results indicate that CCR5Δ32 is unlikely to contribute to susceptibility to BD in Portuguese patients. This may be explained by the known functional redundancy of this signalling system.