A METAANALYSIS OF HLA-ANTIGEN PREVALENCES IN ALCOHOLICS AND ALCOHOLICLIVER-DISEASE

In the search for genetic factors influencing susceptibility to the de velopment of alcoholism and alcoholic liver disease, 28 studies have b een published analysing the distribution of human leucocyte antigens ( HLA) in alcoholics compared to healthy controls. A number of HLA-pheno types has been suspected of being associated with both alcoholism and alcoholic liver disease. In the present study a meta-analysis is carri ed out on the data from these studies, subdivided according to race an d degree of liver injury. The conclusion is that none of the HLA-pheno types so far investigated in Caucasians can be shown to be significant ly more common in any of the studied patient categories than in contro ls, whereas the results of Japanese studies are less clear. The limita tions of the data material and the design of the studies are discussed , as well as the strength and limitations of the method of meta-analys is.