Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common systemic autoimmune disease affecting approximately 1% of the adult population worldwide and 0.75% in Indians. Rheumatoid factor (RF), a circulating antibody, is a key serum analyzer used in diagnosis of RA. Recent evidence indicates that chromosomal abnormalities (CA) has been used as a biological marker in the study of RA. The present study aims to identify the major and minor CA found among the RA patients in Coimbatore district, South India. The study was conducted in 110 samples (RA patients 55 and Controls 55) using G- banding protocol and the RA patients and controls were selected based on their RF value and they were categorized in to 2 groups based on their age. In this study it was found that there was a significant increase in RF value in the serum of group 2 RA subjects. The major alterations observed were deletions and translocations mainly in the chromosome 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 16, 18 and minor aberrations like dicentrics, gaps, breaks and rings were observed in chromosomes 1, 6, 9, 18. Thus the results of this study predict that CA was one of the best biomarker for RA predictivity in women. Consequently, further identification of RA genetic risk factors should aid in elucidating the underlying mechanisms of autoimmunity, in general, and substantially impact drug discovery through the development of targeted diagnostics and therapeutics.

Key words: Rheumatoid arthritis, chromosomal alterations, rheumatoid factor.