Association of ulcerative colitis with the inflammatory bowel disease susceptibility locus IBD2 in non-Jewish Caucasians and evidence of genetic heterogeneity among racial and ethnic populations with Crohn disease

Genomewide scanning has been used to identify chromosomal regions encoding susceptibility loci to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The greatest evidence for linkage to IBD has been reported for a region of chromosome 12q14 surrounding the microsatellite marker D12S83, with a logarithm of odds score of 5.47 and a positive transmission disequilibrium test, and which was subsequently named IBD2. We wished to confirm this locus by genotyping the highly polymorphic microsatellites D12S1022, D12S1056, and D12S83, spanning a continuous region on chromosome 12 of 342 kb, in a cohort of nonrelated individuals with ulcerative colitis (89 patients), Crohn disease (121 patients), and population-based control subjects (100 patients). In non-Jewish Caucasians, one D12S1022 allele, one D12S1056 genotype, and three D12S83 alleles were found to have statistically significant differences in distribution between the two disease groups and the control population, These data support a significant association of IBD with the IBD2 locus in close vicinity to the three markers studied. The replication of genetic risk loci in a case control association study may indicate susceptibility genes in this region and may facilitate identification of candidate genes for IBD. Subgroup analysis revealed a notable difference in genotype distribution among Jewish Caucasian and African American patients affected with Crohn disease when compared with similarly affected non-Jewish Caucasians. Using Fisher exact test, statistically significant distribution differences were observed for D12S1022 and D12S83. These data indicate that there may be significant genetic heterogeneity between different ethnic and racial IBD populations or may simply reflect differences in marker allele frequencies among populations.