Genotyping for six well studied polymorphisms (rs4986790, rs4986791, rs10759932, rs41426344, rs11536889 and rs7873784) in TLR4 gene were conducted in 1074 unrelated patients with RA and 1692 healthy control subjects, as well as in 217 unrelated patients with JIA and 378 healthy control subjects using direct sequencing technique. Here, TLR4 is linked to rheumatoid arthritis.