A. Alfouzan et al., STUDY OF HLA CLASS-I II AND T-LYMPHOCYTE SUBSETS IN KUWAITI VITILIGO PATIENTS/, European journal of immunogenetics, 22(2), 1995, pp. 209-213
HLA polymorphisms of class I and class II MHC were investigated in 40
Kuwaiti vitiligo patients and in 40 controls using microcytotoxicity a
ssay. HLA-B21, Cw6 and DR53 were increased significantly in patients c
ompared to controls (P = 0.00001, 0.00001 and P = 0.0053 respectively)
while HLA-A19, DR52, were significantly decreased (P = 0.00236, 0.05,
respectively). Total T-cells, T4 and T8 were measured as CD2, CD4 and
CD8 respectively by flow cytometry. Vitiligo patients showed signific
ant increase in CD4 compared to controls (P = 0.03). Our findings sugg
est that HLA-B21 and Cw6 and DR53, are susceptible genes of vitiligo,
while A19 and DR52 are protective genes in the Kuwaiti population.