Lack Of Association Between GLCCI1 Variant And Glucocorticoid Insensitivity In Chinese Bullous Disease Patients

Background: Bullous diseases are a group of skin disorders that result from autoimmunity against intercellular adhesion molecules of the basement membrane,characterized by widespread blisters and erosions of skin and mucous membranes. Systemic glucocorticoids(GCs) are the most widely prescribed medications for controlling bullous diseases. However, there is a subset of patients that exhibit a poor clinical response to the administration of high doses of systemic steroids, which require high maintenance doses of these immunosuppressive drugs1. Recently, a functional glucocorticoid-induced transcript 1gene(GLCCI1) variant(rs 37973)has been identified to determine GC sensitivity in asthmaObjective: We investigated the association between GLCCI1 gene and GC insensitivity in Chinese population with bullous diseases.Methods:A total of 187 subjects(111 pemphigus and 76 bullous pemphigoid) were divided into GC-sensitive(n = 129, control dose ≤60 mg) and GC-insensitive groups(n =58; control dose, ≥ 150 mg). After informed consent and approval of the local ethics committee, genomic DNA was extracted from the peripheral blood. Single SNP(rs37973)was genotyped by TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assay Kit on the GeneAmp 7900 Sequence Detection System using specific TaqMan probes. After adjusting for age and sex, statistical analysis was performed using logistic regression in PLINK.Results: We failed to detect rs37973 variation in patients with GC-insensitive bullous diseases(P = 0.7881, odds ratio = 1.062).Conclusion: We confirmed Chinese population showed no association between GLCCI1 and glucocorticoids insensitivity with bullous diseases that suggested GLCCI1 may action in a population-specific manner. However further studies are necessary to elucidate the mechanism of glucocorticoids insensitivity in bullous diseases.