BACKGROUND: It has previously been shown that various inflammatory diseases, such as
diabetes mellitus, bronchial asthma, chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, and rheumatoid
arthritis, are in some circumstances genetically linked to the same chromosomal regions.
Consequently, common genes underlying the pathogenetics of these diseases have been
proposed. Chronic inflammatory disorders can be subdivided by their predominant immune
response, either TH1 or TH2. For example, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a TH1 …