Association of IL-2RA/CD25 with type 1 diabetes in the Belgian population

Our goals were to study the proposed association of IL-2RA /CD25 with type 1 diabetes in the Belgian population over a broad age range, and to explore possible correlations with disease phenotypes, immune markers, HLA-DQ, INS, and PTPN22. Patients (n = 1954), healthy controls (n = 2082), and families (n = 420) were genotyped for IL-2RA/CD25 rs41295061(C>A), HLA-DQ, INS-VNTR and PTPN22. IL-2RA/CD25 was associated with type 1 diabetes (χ2 = 26.8, p < 0.001 for alleles and χ2 = 29.6, p < 0.001 for genotypes). The C allele (odds ratios [OR] = 1.59) and C/C genotype (OR = 1.56) were identified as susceptibility variants, whereas the A allele (OR = 0.63), A/A genotype (OR = 0.14), and A/C genotype (OR = 0.69) as protective variants. IL-2RA/CD25 is associated with both early-onset and late-onset type 1 diabetes, but with a larger effect size in early-onset disease. There was a nonsignificant tendency toward transmission distortion (p = 0.063). Except a tendency toward younger age at onset in carriers of the C/C genotype, no correlations with disease phenotype, immune markers, HLA-DQ, INS and PTPN22 were observed. Also, the frequency of the susceptible genotype was higher in early-onset compared with late-onset TID patients (p = 0.015). In conclusion, IL-2RA/CD25 is associated with type 1 diabetes in the Belgian population, independently of disease phenotype and other biologic markers.