Multiple sclerosis (OMIM 126200) is a common disease of the central nervous system in which the interplay between inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes typically results in intermittent neurological disturbance followed by progressive accumulation of disability.1 Epidemiological studies have shown that genetic factors are primarily responsible for the substantially increased frequency of the disease seen in the relatives of affected individuals;2,3 and systematic attempts to identify linkage in multiplex families have confirmed that variation within the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) exerts the greatest individual effect on risk.4 Modestly powered Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS)5-10 have enabled more than 20 additional risk loci to be identified and have shown that multiple variants exerting modest individual effects play a key role in disease susceptibility.11 Most of the genetic architecture underlying susceptibility to the disease remains to be defined and is anticipated to require the analysis of sample sizes that are beyond the numbers currently available to individual research groups. In a collaborative GWAS involving 9772 cases of European descent collected by 23 research groups working in 15 different countries, we have replicated almost all of the previously suggested associations and identified at least a further 29 novel susceptibility loci. Within the MHC we have refined the identity of the DRB1 risk alleles and confirmed that variation in the HLA-A gene underlies the independent protective effect attributable to the Class I region. Immunologically relevant genes are significantly over-represented amongst those mapping close to the identified loci and particularly implicate T helper cell differentiation in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis.

BACKGROUND T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by the expansion of clonal CD3+CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and often associated with autoimmune disorders and immune-mediated cytopenias. METHODS We used next-generation exome sequencing to identify somatic mutations in CTLs from an index patient with large granular lymphocytic leukemia. Targeted resequencing was performed in a well-characterized cohort of 76 patients with this disorder, characterized by clonal T-cell–receptor rearrangements and increased numbers of large granular lymphocytes. RESULTS Mutations in the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 gene (STAT3) were found in 31 of 77 patients (40%) with large granular lymphocytic leukemia. Among these 31 patients, recurrent mutational hot spots included Y640F in 13 (17%), D661V in 7 (9%), D661Y in 7 (9%), and N647I in 3 (4%). All mutations were located in exon 21, encoding the Src homology 2 (SH2) domain, which mediates the dimerization and activation of STAT protein. The amino acid changes resulted in a more hydrophobic protein surface and were associated with phosphorylation of STAT3 and its localization in the nucleus. In vitro functional studies showed that the Y640F and D661V mutations increased the transcriptional activity of STAT3. In the affected patients, downstream target genes of the STAT3 pathway (IFNGR2, BCL2L1, and JAK2) were up-regulated. Patients with STAT3 mutations presented more often with neutropenia and rheumatoid arthritis than did patients without these mutations. CONCLUSIONS The SH2 dimerization and activation domain of STAT3 is frequently mutated in patients with large granular lymphocytic leukemia; these findings suggest that aberrant STAT3 signaling underlies the pathogenesis of this disease. (Funded by the Academy of Finland and others.)

.FI T.V.Petrova and T.Ma Èkinen contributed equally to this workLymphatic vessels are essential for¯uid homeostasis, immune surveillance and fat adsorption, and also serve as a major route for tumor metastasis in many types of cancer. We found that isolated human primary lymphatic and blood vascular endothelial cells (LECs and BECs, respectively) show interesting differences in gene expression relevant for their distinct functions in vivo. Although these phenotypes are stable in vitro and in vivo, overexpression of the homeobox transcription factor Prox-1 in the BECs was capable of inducing LEC-speci®c gene transcription in the BECs, and, surprisingly, Prox-1 suppressed the expression of~40% of the BEC-speci®c genes. Prox-1 did not have global effects on the expression of LEC-speci®c genes in other cell types, except that it up-regulated cyclin E1 and E2 mRNAs and activated the cyclin e promoter in various cell types. These data suggest that Prox-1 acts as a cell proliferation inducer and a fate determination factor for the LECs. Furthermore, the data provide insights into the phenotypic diversity of endothelial cells and into the possibility of transcriptional reprogramming of differentiated endothelial cells.

Familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCHL), characterized by elevated levels of serum total cholesterol, triglycerides or both 1,2 , is observed in about 20% of individuals with premature coronary heart disease 1 . We previously identified a locus linked to FCHL on 1q21-q23 in Finnish families with the disease 3 . This region has also been linked to FCHL in families from other populations 4-6 as well as to type 2 diabetes mellitus 7-12 . These clinical entities have several overlapping phenotypic features, raising the possibility that the same gene may underlie the obtained linkage results. Here, we show that the human gene encoding thioredoxin interacting protein (TXNIP) on 1q, which underlies combined hyperlipidemia in mice 13 , is not associated with FCHL. We show that FCHL is linked and associated with the gene encoding upstream transcription factor 1 (USF1) in 60 extended families with FCHL, including 721 genotyped individuals (P = 0.00002), especially in males with high triglycerides (P = 0.0000009). Expression profiles in fat biopsy samples from individuals with FCHL seemed to differ depending on their carrier status for the associated USF1 haplotype. USF1 encodes a transcription factor known to regulate several genes of glucose and lipid metabolism 14-17 .To identify the gene on 1q21 associated with FCHL, we initially sequenced four functionally relevant regional candidates: TXNIP, USF1, retinoid X receptor gamma (RXRG) and apolipoprotein A-II (APOA2). In parallel, we carried out a functionally unbiased genetic analysis of 60 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 26 genes in 42 families with FCHL, including the 31 families in the original linkage study 3 . We then genotyped the ten SNPs most likely to be relevant in the extended sample of 60 families of FCHL (Supplementary Table 1 online). Fifty SNPs were located in a 5.8-Mb region flanking the peak markers D1S104 and D1S1677 (Fig. 1). All the families that we studied included a proband with severe coronary heart disease and an abnormal lipid phenotype and an average of 5-6 members affected with FCHL.We sequenced the entire TXNIP gene and the 2,000-bp upstream DNA region in 60 FCHL probands. Of the 20 SNPs identified, none resulted in amino acid changes, and all were rare, with a maximal 7% allele frequency. We also did not observe the nonsense mutation causing hyperlipidemia in mice 13 . We genotyped the four most common SNPs in the 60 families with FCHL but found no evidence of association Table 2 for distances, SNP numbers and LD clusters of these SNPs). (c) The SNPs associated with triglyceride levels in men and (d) the SNPs associated with FCHL and triglycerides in all family members.