The role of STAT4 gene variants on the susceptibility and phenotype of inflammatory bowel diseases

Aims: Recent studies demonstrated an association of STAT4 variants with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), indicating that multiple autoimmune diseases share common genetic and molecular pathways. We aimed to investigate the influence of STAT4 variants on the susceptibility and phenotype of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in a large German patient and control cohort. Methods: Genomic DNA from 2704 individuals of Caucasian origin including 857 patients with Crohn's disease (CD), 464 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), and 1383 healthy, unrelated controls was analyzed for seven…