HLA GENOTYPES AND THE INCREASED INCIDENCE OF CELIAC-DISEASE IN SWEDEN

Background: A strong increase of childhood coeliac disease (CD) was fo und in Sweden concurrently with changes in the infant feeding pattern. We investigated whether this increase reflects a recruitment of indiv iduals with less predisposing HLA genotypes. Methods: Genomic HLA-DRB1 , -DQA1, and -DQB1 typing was performed in 135 Swedish patients (48 be longing to a low- and 81 to a high-incidence cohort) and 179 controls. The distribution of HLA class-II genotypes in the cohorts was compare d. Results: DQA10501 and DQB1*02 conferred increased risk for CD, and a gene dosage effect of DQB102 was found. The distribution of HLA ge notypes among the cohorts did not differ. Conclusions: The results sug gest that Swedish CD patients do not differ in genetic susceptibility compared with other populations. No evidence was found suggesting that the increase would be a result of more frequent development of diseas e in individuals carrying less predisposing HLA genotypes.