ANALYSIS OF CLASS-II GENES OF HUMAN-LEUKOCYTE ANTIGEN IN PATIENTS WITH MOYAMOYA-DISEASE

Moyamoya disease is a progressive stenoocclusive disease at the termin al portion of the bilateral internal carotid arteries. An unusual vasc ular network is formed as a result of ishemic change of cerebrovascula r system. Although some investigations suggested possible etiological factors of Moyamoya disease, the etiology is still unknown. To elucida te the genetic factors of Moyamoya disease, class II genes of human le ukocyte antigen (HLA) were analyzed at the DNA level. The DNA typing o f HLA was performed in the unrelated Japanese patients with definite M oyamoya disease using extracted genomic DNA from the leukocyte. The ge notype was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific ol igonucleotide probe (PCR-SSOP) technique. The class II genotypes were analyzed in 71 samples. As a result, several alleles of classII genes showed significant association with Moyamoya disease. DQB10502 had po sitive association with the disease. On the other hand DRB10405 and D QB10401 had negative association. Moyamoya disease seems to have a ge netic background in its etiology because certain alleles of HLA are as sociated with Moyamoya disease. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.