Association of susceptibility locus for inflammatory bowel disease on chromosome 16 with both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease

A susceptibility locus for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on chromosome 16 (IBDI) has been linked to Crohn's disease in genome-wide linkage studies. We performed a case-control study with two markers for this locus using leukocyte DNA from 127 Crohn's patients, 83 ulcerative colitis patients, and 74 control patients. Allele, genotype, and haplotype frequencies of the polymerase chain reaction products were determined using autoradiography. Haplotype frequencies differed for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, particularly for haplotype CC (22% ulcerative colitis vs 10% Crohn's disease, P = 0.002 x(2) 10.0) and haplotype CD (18% Crohn's disease vs 9% ulcerative colitis, P = 0.025 x(2) = 5.02). These data demonstrate the association of the IBDI locus with both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease in a group of unrelated IBD patients. The use of such microsatellite markers when combined with others, might help distinguish ulcerative colitis from Crohn's disease in patients with ambiguous clinical and histological features.