Two single‐nucleotide polymorphisms in the 5′ and 3′ ends of the osteopontin gene contribute to susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

These data suggest the independent effect of a promoter (-156) and a 3'-untranslated region (+1239) SNP in SLE susceptibility. We can speculate that these sequence variants (or others in perfect linkage disequilibrium) create a predisposition to high production of OPN, and that this in turn may confer susceptibility to SLE.