Genetic variants of TREML2 are associated with HLA-B27-positive ankylosing spondylitis

Although ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a common, highly heritable arthropathy, the precise genetic mechanism underlying the disease remains elusive. Here, we investigate the disease-causing mutations in a large AS family with distinguished complexity, consisting of 23 patients covering four generations and exhibiting a mixed HLA-B27 (+) and (−) status. Linkage analysis with 32 members using three methods and whole-exome sequencing analysis with three HLA-B27 (+) patients, one HLA-B27 (−) patient, and one healthy individual did not identify a mutation common to all of the patients, strongly suggesting the existence of genetic heterogeneity in this large pedigree. However, if only B27-positive patients were analyzed, the linkage analysis located a 22-Mb region harboring the HLA gene cluster in chromosome 6 (LOD = 4.2), and the subsequent exome analysis identified two non-synonymous mutations in the TREML2 and IP6K3 genes. These genes were resequenced among 370 sporadic AS patients and 487 healthy individuals. A significantly higher mutation frequency of TREML2 was observed in AS patients (1.51% versus 0.21%). The results obtained for the AS pedigree and sporadic patients suggest that mutation of TREML2 is a major factor leading to AS for HLA-B27 (+) members in this large family and that TREML2 is also a susceptibility gene promoting the development of ankylosing spondylitis in HLA-B27 (+) individuals.