['To validate the reported association between CC chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) -2518 G single nucleotide polymorphism and systemic sclerosis (SSc) in a much larger cohort of patients. We also performed subgroup analysis to test the hypothesis that CCL2 variants predispose to specific disease phenotypes.', 'Ninety-four Caucasian patients with SSc and 102 matched controls were genotyped by sequence-specific primers-polymerase chain reaction (SSP-PCR) methodology.', 'Six biallelic single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were investigated (3 in the promoter region, 2 in the exon-coding sequence, and 1 in the 3x untranslated region), in addition to the known functional -2518 (A/G) variant. Six major haplotypes were constructed across all 7 SNP positions. No significant differences in genotype, allele, or haplotype frequency were observed between patients and controls or within disease subgroups.'] Are single-nucleotide polymorphisms in CCL2 gene associated with susceptibility to systemic sclerosis?