Genetic markers for colitis identified

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers say they have identified genetic markers associated with risk for ulcerative colitis.

Senior author Richard H. Duerr says that ulcerative colitis is a chronic, relapsing disorder that causes inflammation and ulceration in the inner lining of the rectum and large intestine resulting in diarrhea and abdominal pain.

"Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are chronic conditions that impact the day-to-day lives of patients," Duerr said in a statement. "Inflammatory bowel disease is most often diagnosed in the teenage years or early adulthood. While patients usually don't die from inflammatory bowel disease, affected individuals live with its debilitating symptoms during the most productive years of their lives."

The researchers performed a genome-wide association study of hundreds of thousands of genetic markers using DNA samples from 1,052 individuals with ulcerative colitis and pre-exisiting data from 2,571 controls, all of European ancestry and residing in North America.

Several genetic markers on chromosomes 1p36 and 12q15 showed highly significant associations with ulcerative colitis, and the association evidence was replicated in independent European ancestry samples from North America and southern Italy.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Genetics.