Several lines of evidence implicate the Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Antigen 4 (CTLA4) gene in susceptibility to autoimmune disease. We have examined the association of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) with polymorhisms within the CTLA4 gene that were previously proposed to regulate CTLA-4 function: a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in position þ 49 of exon 1 and a dinucleotide repeat in the 3 0 untranslated region (3'UTR). The 3 0 UTR repeat showed a significant association with SLE, with one allele conferring susceptibility and another conferring protection to the disease. The associated alleles do not support previous suggestions of an allele size-dependent effect of the 3' UTR polymorphism in autoimmunity development and instead suggest that it is in linkage disequilibrium with a true causative locus. No association of the exon 1 SNP with SLE was found in our population. Given the conflicting results obtained in different studies on the association of SLE with this polymorphism, we performed a meta-analysis including seven previously published studies and the present one. Significantly increased and decreased risks for SLE were found for carriers of the G allele and the A allele, respectively. The functional characterization of disease-associated CTLA4 gene variants is now required to elucidate their role in the pathogenesis of SLE and other autoimmune diseases.

To describe the clinical and immunologic characteristics of patients with adrenal involvement and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), we conducted a computer-assisted (PubMed) search of the literature to identify all cases of primary adrenal insufficiency associated with antiphospholipid antibodies published in English, French, and Spanish from 1983 (when APS was first defined) through March 2002. We reviewed 86 patients (80 from the literature plus 6 from our cohort); 55% were male, and the mean age at presentation was 43 +/- 16 years. Sixty-one (71%) patients had primary APS, and 14 (16%) had systemic lupus erythematosus. In 31 (36%) patients, adrenal insufficiency was the first clinical manifestation of APS. Abdominal pain was present in 55% of patients, followed by hypotension (54%), fever (40%), nausea or vomiting (31%), weakness or fatigue (31%), and lethargy or altered mental status (19%). The main finding in imaging techniques was compatible with adrenal hemorrhage (59%) and in histopathologic study was a hemorrhagic infarction with vessel thrombosis (55%). Lupus anticoagulant was detected in 97% of patients and the anticardiolipin antibodies titer was positive in 93% of patients. Most patients (95%) were positive for the IgG isotype of anticardiolipin antibodies, whereas 40% were positive for the IgM isotype. Baseline cortisol levels were decreased in 98% of patients, ACTH hormone levels were increased in 96% of patients, and the cosyntropin stimulation test was positive in 100% of patients tested. Steroid replacement therapy was the most frequent treatment (84%), followed by anticoagulation (52%) and aspirin (6%). Thirty-two of 35 (91%) patients with prolonged anticoagulant therapy were in good health with a mean follow-up of 25 months, whereas 25 of the 69 (36%) patients with outcome data available had died. The results of the present review stress the clinical importance of systematic screening for lupus anticoagulant and anticardiolipin antibodies in all cases of adrenal hemorrhage or infarction. An initial screening for hypoadrenalism is mandatory in any antiphospholipid antibody-positive patient who complains of abdominal pain and undue weakness or asthenia.

Background: CD4 + CD25 + regulatory T cells play an essential role in maintaining immune homeostasis and preventing autoimmunity. Therefore, defects in Treg development, maintenance or function have been associated with several human autoimmune diseases including Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by loss of tolerance to nuclear components and significantly more frequent in females.

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an acquired autoimmune disease that predominantly affects older people. Mucosal involvement is rare in BP. We report an unusual case of an elderly patient with BP with involvement of the oesophagus presenting as gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding. Although mucosal involvement is typically rare in BP, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of GI bleeding in patients affected with the disease.

A new case of autosomal recessive agammaglobulinaemia with impaired pre-B cell differentiation due to a large deletion of the IGH locus Abstract Males with X-linked agammaglobulinaemia (XLA) due to mutations in the Bruton tyrosine kinase gene constitute the major group of congenital hypogammaglobulinaemia with absence of peripheral B cells. In these cases, blockages between the pro-B and pre-B cell stage in the bone marrow are found. The remaining male and female cases clinically similar to XLA represent a genotypically heterogeneous group of diseases. In these patients, various autosomal recessive disorders have been identified such as mutations affecting IGHM, CD79A, IGLL1 genes involved in the composition of the pre-B cell receptor (pre-BCR) or the BLNK gene implicated in pre-BCR signal transduction. In this paper, we report on a young female patient characterised by a severe non-XLA agammaglobulinaemia that represents a new case of Igl defect. We show that the B cell blockage at the pro-B to pre-B cell transition is due to a large homologous deletion in the IGH locus encompassing the IGHM gene leading to the inability to form a functional pre-BCR. The deletion extends from the beginning of the diversity (D) region to the IGHG2 gene, with all JH segments and IGHM, IGHD, IGHG3 and IGHG1 genes missing. Conclusion: alteration in Igl expression seems to be relatively frequent and could account for most of the reported cases of autosomal recessive agammaglobulinaemia.Keywords Agammaglobulinaemia AE B cell blockage AE IGH locus AE Immunoglobulin gene deletion AE Pre-B cellAbbreviations BET: ethidium bromide AE BTK: Bruton tyrosine kinase gene AE IGH: immunoglobulin heavy chain locus AE pre-BCR: pre-B cell receptor AE XLA: X-linked agammaglobulinaemia IntroductionRecurrent infections, mostly respiratory, with pyogenic bacteria are the predominant manifestations of children suffering antibody deficiencies. In some of these patients, early B cell development in the bone marrow is arrested and hypogammaglobulinaemia results from the absence of peripheral B cells. In these cases, chronic diarrhoea could also be observed and constitutes a serious clinical problem. This occurs in X-linked agammaglobulinaemia (XLA), also known as Bruton disease, characterised by defects in the Bruton tyrosine kinase gene (BTK) [13,14] that encodes the cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase btk, involved in signal transduction. In these cases, B cell development is blocked in the bone marrow at the pre-B cell stage, resulting in the accumulation of CD34+ CD19+ pro-B cells and in the presence of variable numbers of CD34-CD19+ pre-B cells. Females with a phenotype indistinguishable from XLA have also been described and Conley et al. [2] have estimated that these immunodeficiencies represent 10% of patients with congenital hypogammaglobulinaemia. The defects behind such autosomal recessive disorders have been recently identified and shown to affect predominantly the pre-B cell receptor (pre-BCR), which is an absolute prerequisite for pro-B to pre-B cell ...