Molecular Genetics of Rheumatoid Arthritis and Future Prospectus in Pakistan

Abstract

The spectrum of rheumatic disease is wide and includes conditions with diverse pathology, although most have in common a heritable risk with a complex genetic basis. Over the past decade intense efforts have been done to understand the contribution of genotype to the expression of disease in terms of both basic pathogenesis and clinical characteristics. The dramatic improvement in technology and methodology has accelerated the pace of gene discovery in complex disorders in an exponential fashion. This review focuses on rheumatoid arthritis and describes some of the recently described genes that underlie this condition and the extent to which they overlap.