Familial scleroderma-evidence for environmental versus genetic trigger

• Published in: British journal of rheumatology 1994-12, Vol.33 (12), p.1131-1135
• Main Authors: STEPHENS, C. O, BRIGGS, D. C, BLACK, C. M, WHYTE, J, ARTLETT, C. M, SCHERBAKOV, A. B, OLSEN, N, GUSSEVA, N. G, MCHUGH, N. J, MADDISON, P. J, WELSH, K. I
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Alleles; Biological and medical sciences; Environment; Family Health; Female; Fluorescent Antibody Technique; HLA-DR Antigens - genetics; Humans; Immunoblotting; Immunogenetics; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Pedigree; Sarcoidosis. Granulomatous diseases of unproved etiology. Connective tissue diseases. Elastic tissue diseases. Vasculitis; Scleroderma, Systemic - etiology; Scleroderma, Systemic - genetics; Scleroderma, Systemic - immunology; Severity of Illness Index
• ISSN: 0263-7103; 1460-2172

Families with more than one case of scleroderma are unusual. Four families each with two members (in one case monozygotic twins) with scleroderma (systemic sclerosis, SSc) were identified. Clinical, immunogenetic and autoantibody studies were carried out. Multicase SSc families cited in the literature were reviewed. Each family pair shared cutaneous subset of disease severity, and SSc-associated autoantibody. HLA typing showed two pairs shared an HLA-DR allele associated with scleroderma (DR3 or DR5), while one also had alleles reported in association with their SSc-specific autoantibody. Review of dates and ages of onset suggested that the timing of onset of scleroderma is more likely to have an environmental trigger than to be encoded genetically.