Gérard H C, Wang G F, Balin B J, Schumacher H R, Hudson A P
Department Immunology and Microbiology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, 540 East Canfield Avenue, Detroit, MI, 48201, USA.
Microb Pathog. 1999 Jan;26(1):35-43. doi: 10.1006/mpat.1998.0242.
Genetic background is important in determining whether certain infecting bacteria disseminate to the joint and cause arthritis. We assessed whether APOE genotype is associated with the presence of DNA from Chlamydia or other bacteria in synovial tissues of patients with various arthritides. Nucleic acids from synovial tissues of 135 patients were screened by PCR for DNA from Chlamydia trachomatis, C. pneumoniae and other bacteria (pan-bacteria). APOE genotype was determined by a PCR-based method for all patients in each of four resulting groups comprised of about 35 individuals each, positive for C. trachomatis only, C. pneumoniae only, other bacteria, or no bacteria. RT-PCR was used to assess synovial APOE expression. The latter assays confirmed that APOE mRNA is present in synovial tissue. Determination of APOE genotype showed that patients PCR-negative in all assays, and those positive in the C. trachomatis - and pan-bacteria- (excluding Chlamydia) directed assays, had distributions of the APOE epsilon2, epsilon3 and epsilon4 alleles mirroring those of the general population (i.e. about 8%, 79% and 13%, respectively). In contrast, 68% of patients with C. pneumoniae DNA in synovium possessed a copy of the epsilon4 allele. These results indicate that no association exists between APOE genotype and synovial presence of C. trachomatis or other bacteria. However, individuals bearing at least one copy of the APOE epsilon4 allele may be at increased risk for synovial infection by C. pneumoniae.
基因背景在决定某些感染细菌是否扩散至关节并引发关节炎方面很重要。我们评估了载脂蛋白E（APOE）基因型是否与各类关节炎患者滑膜组织中沙眼衣原体、肺炎衣原体或其他细菌的DNA存在情况相关。通过聚合酶链反应（PCR）对135例患者滑膜组织中的核酸进行筛查，以检测沙眼衣原体、肺炎衣原体及其他细菌（泛细菌）的DNA。对四个结果组中每组约35名患者采用基于PCR的方法确定APOE基因型，这四个组分别为仅沙眼衣原体阳性、仅肺炎衣原体阳性、其他细菌阳性或无细菌阳性。采用逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）评估滑膜组织中APOE的表达。后一项检测证实滑膜组织中存在APOE信使核糖核酸（mRNA）。APOE基因型的测定表明，在所有检测中PCR呈阴性的患者，以及在沙眼衣原体和泛细菌（不包括衣原体）检测中呈阳性的患者，其APOE ε2、ε3和ε4等位基因的分布与普通人群相似（即分别约为8%、79%和13%）。相比之下，滑膜中存在肺炎衣原体DNA的患者中有68%拥有一份ε4等位基因拷贝。这些结果表明，APOE基因型与滑膜中沙眼衣原体或其他细菌的存在之间不存在关联。然而，携带至少一份APOE ε4等位基因拷贝的个体可能感染肺炎衣原体的风险增加。
