Identification of quantitative trait loci for murine autoimmune pancreatitis

Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) represents a rare but clinically relevant cause of pancreatic inflammation with largely unknown pathogenesis. Here, we have established an advanced intercross line of AIP-susceptible and resistant mouse strains to study the genetic basis of the disease. Therefore, generation G4 of outbread intercross mice was characterized phenotypically by scoring histopathological changes of the pancreas and genotyped with SNP arrays. Five quantitative trait loci (QTLs), correlating with the severity of AIP, were identified. The QTL with the highest LOD score (5.4) maps to chromosome 4 and contains the C-type lectin domain family 4 member a2 as a putative candidate gene in its peak region. Studies to fine map the QTLs and elucidate the role of candidate genes are underway. (By Robert Jaster and Saleh M. Ibrahim, http://jmg.bmj.com/content/early/2011/06/27/jmg.2011.089730.abstract?papetoc )