1. ¹Department of Medical Sciences, University of Eastern Piedmont and Interdisciplinary Research Center for Autoimmune Diseases (IRCAD), Novara, Italy
2. ²Department of Paediatrics, University of Naples Federico II and European Laboratory of Food Induced Disease (ELFID), Naples, Italy
3. ³INSERM U535, University of Paris XI, Hôpital Paul Brousse, Villejuif, France

Correspondence: Dr M Giordano, Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Via Solaroli 17, 28100 Novara, Italy. E-mail: giordano@med.unipmn.it

Received 23 May 2006; Revised 23 June 2006; Accepted 6 July 2006; Published online 31 August 2006.

Abstract

Association between Myosin IXB (MYO9B) gene polymorphisms and celiac disease (CD) was recently detected by a case–control association study in the Dutch, but not confirmed in the British and Swedish/Norwegian populations. We tested the association between CD and the three most associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the Dutch study by the transmission disequilibrium test in the Italian population. A total of 252 pediatric patients and 504 parents were genotyped. No transmission distortion was detected either for the single SNPs or for their haplotypic combinations. Control allele frequencies, calculated from untransmitted alleles, were significantly different from those of the Dutch control population. Conversely, allele frequencies were very similar in Italian, British, Swedish/Norwegian and Dutch patients. In conclusion, MYO9B is not involved in CD susceptibility in the Italian population. The difference with the Dutch result might be explained by an imperfect selection of the Dutch controls.