The HLA-DQ?1 insertion is a strong achalasia risk factor and displays a geospatial north-south gradient among Europeans.
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ABSTRACT: Idiopathic achalasia is a severe motility disorder of the esophagus and is characterized by a failure of the lower esophageal sphincter to relax due to a loss of neurons in the myenteric plexus. Most recently, we identified an eight-amino-acid insertion in the cytoplasmic tail of HLA-DQ?1 as strong achalasia risk factor in a sample set from Central Europe, Italy and Spain. Here, we tested whether the HLA-DQ?1 insertion also confers achalasia risk in the Polish and Swedish population. We could replicate the initial findings and the insertion shows strong achalasia association in both samples (Poland P=1.84 × 10(-04), Sweden P=7.44 × 10(-05)). Combining all five European data sets - Central Europe, Italy, Spain, Poland and Sweden - the insertion is achalasia associated with Pcombined=1.67 × 10(-35). In addition, we observe that the frequency of the insertion shows a geospatial north-south gradient. The insertion is less common in northern (around 6-7% in patients and 2% in controls from Sweden and Poland) compared with southern Europeans (~16% in patients and 8% in controls from Italy) and shows a stronger attributable risk in the southern European population. Our study provides evidence that the prevalence of achalasia may differ between populations.
SUBMITTER: Becker J
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4970678 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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