Association of CCR5 Delta 32 and Behcet's disease: new data from a case-control study in the Spanish population and meta-analysis

Objective. Behvet's disease (BD) is an immune-mediated and complex disease associated with HLA class I and other genes. The aim of this study was to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship of the 32-bp deletion in the CCR5 gene (CCR5 Delta 32) and this disease by conducting a case-control study in the Spanish population and also a meta-analysis including all the studies available to date. Methods. A cohort composed of 348 BD Spanish patients and 477 unrelated healthy and ethnically matched individuals were genotyped in CCR5 Delta 32 using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and capillary electrophoresis with fluorescent detection. In the meta-analysis, data from a total of seven populations extracted from four previous studies along with data of the present study were included. Results. Regarding the case-control study, no statistically significant differences were observed when the patient and control groups were compared (allelic model: 0.07 in patients versus 0.06 in controls, p=0.303). In the meta-analysis, no evidence of association of the CCR5 Delta 32 polymorphism with BD was observed (p(MH) = 0.091; OR= 1.22; 95%Cl 0.98 to 1.52 in the allelic model). Conclusion. The results of this meta-analysis discard a major role of the CCR5 Delta 32 polymorphism in BD.