CD40 Gene Polymorphisms Associated with Susceptibility and Coronary Artery Lesions of Kawasaki Disease in the Taiwanese Population.

Background. Kawasaki disease (KD) is characterized by systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology. Our previous studies showed expression ofCD40ligand on CD4+ T cells correlated to the coronary artery lesion (CAL) and disease progress in KD. Other studies from Japan suggested the role ofCD40Lin the pathogenesis of CAL, and this might help explain the excessive number of males affected with KD but cannot be reproduced by Taiwanese population. This study was conducted to investigate theCD40polymorphism in KD and CAL formation.Methods. A total of 950 subjects (381 KD patients and 569 controls) were investigated to identify 2 tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs) ofCD40(rs4810485 and rs1535045) by using the TaqMan allelic discrimination assay.Results. A significant association was noted with regards toCD40tSNPs (rs1535045) between controls and KD patients (P=0.0405, dominant model). In KD patients, polymorphisms ofCD40(rs4810485) showed significant association with CAL formation (P=0.0436, recessive model). Haplotype analysis did not yield more significant results between polymorphisms ofCD40and susceptibility/disease activity of KD.Conclusions. This study showed for the first time that polymorphisms ofCD40are associated with susceptibility to KD and CAL formation, in the Taiwanese population.