Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a disease of the liver, which predominantly affects women. It causes slowly progressive liver disease, which eventually causes liver failure, requiring a liver transplant. Several different studies of large patient cohorts indicate that the cause of this disease is likely due to a combination of factors including genetic and environmental. PBC is associated with several other "autoimmune diseases" - recently a gene has been identified to be abnormal in individuals with another autoimmune liver disease, namely rheumatoid arthritis. This gene usually tells the body when to switch off an immune response. This study plans to identify whether individuals diagnosed with PBC have a similar abnormality in this gene called protein Tyrosine Phosphatase.

Condition
Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary Biliary Cirrhosis, Primary

Further Study Details: 

Expected Total Enrollment:  500

Very recently, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the PTPN22 gene encoding the Lyp (lymphoid-specific phosphatase) PTP has been shown to be associated with susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Type 1 diabetes (T1D)4,5. These data are consistent with the known role for Lyp in suppressing T cell activation and with data showing T cell activation (and potentially autoreactivity) to be increased by the RA and T1D-associated PTPN22 variant. The PTPN22 risk allele has also been recently implicated in Grave’s disease and as such appears to represent a susceptibility allele for many autoimmune diseases. As a number of these conditions (RA, T1D etc.) frequently occur within members of PBC families, this PTPN22 variant is very likely to also be involved in PBC, a possibility we will directly investigate in this pilot study. The aim of this study is to analyze the frequency of a specific PTPN22 polymorphism in patients with PBC.

Ages Eligible for Study:  18 Years   -   85 Years,  Genders Eligible for Study:  Both

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

AMA positive and liver biopsy proven PBC.

Exclusion Criteria:

AMA negative PBC

Please refer to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov identifier  NCT00145964

Catalina Coltescu      416-603-5832    ccoltesc@uhnres.utoronto.ca

Canada, Ontario
      Liver Clinic, Toronto Western Hospital, UHN., Toronto,  Ontario,  M5T 2S8,  Canada; Recruiting

Study chairs or principal investigators

E.J.L (Jenny) Heathcote, MD,  Principal Investigator,  UHN - Toronto Western Hospital, University of Toronto   

Study ID Numbers:  04-0461-AE
Last Updated:  September 2, 2005
Record first received:  September 2, 2005
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:  NCT00145964
Health Authority: Canada: Health Canada
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on 2005-09-06