ASSOCIATION OF HLA-DRB1-ASTERISK-0803 AND ASTERISK-1602 WITH THE SUSCEPTIBILITY TO PRIMARY BILIARY-CIRRHOSIS

Forty-eight patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and 336 heal thy individuals were examined for HLA-DR, DQ and DP alleles, by DNA ty ping based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) sequence-specific ol igonucleotide probe (SSOP) method. Frequencies of HLA-DRB11602, DRB1* 0803, DQB10502, DQB1*0601 and DPB1*0202 were found to be increased in the patients, These HLA alleles are in linkage disequilibria consisti ng of DRB11602-DQB1*0502 and DRB1*0803-DQB1*0601-DPB1*0202 haplotypes . Since the frequencies of DRB11401 and DRB1*1502, that are in linkag e disequilibria with DQB10502 and DQB1*0601, respectively, were not i ncreased in the patients, the susceptibility to PBC was suggested to b e controlled by the HLA-DRB1 locus. In contrast, the frequency of HLA- DQB10302 was decreased in the patients, while the frequency of each D RB1 allele in linkage disequilibria with DQB10302 did not differ sign ificantly between the patient group and control group, This observatio n suggested that the resistance to PBC may be controlled by the HLA-DQ locus,