Association analysis of MYO9B gene polymorphisms and inflammatory bowel disease in a Norwegian cohort.

Association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the MYO9B gene and celiac disease was recently reported. The role of MYO9B in celiac disease was suggested to relate to an epithelial barrier defect. The region to which MYO9B localize is also linked with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). For these reasons, we hypothesize that MYO9B could also be a susceptibility gene in IBD. To address this, we performed an association study of a Norwegian IBD cohort (149 patients with Crohn's disease, 308 patients with ulcerative colitis and 562 healthy controls) using SNPs, which tagged the celiac disease associated MYO9B haplotype. No association between these SNPs and IBD was observed. Our results failed to support the notion that MYO9B is a susceptibility gene in IBD.