Background: The susceptibility to coeliac disease is genetically determined by possession of certain HLA DQ alleles, together with a one or more non-HLA genes. The central role of the T-cell receptor in disease pathogenesis makes the T-cell receptor genes strong candidates as disease susceptibility genes, and previous studies had provided equivocal ambiguous results.
Methods: A pedigree based genetic linkage study was used to determine if any of the T-cell receptor genes have a role in the genetic aetiology of coeliac disease. Intragenic microsatellite markers were used to study T-cell receptor alpha, beta, and delta, while gamma was studied using two flanking microsatellites D7S484 and D7S629.
Results: Conventional linkage analysis was performed using the MLINK computer package. Model-free linkage analysis was performed using MFLINK. No evidence of linkage between coeliac disease and the T-cell receptor genes was found in these pedigrees.
Conclusions: Mutations in the T-cell receptor genes are not implicated in the genetic aetiology of coeliac disease.