HLA CLASS-II GENES IN LATVIAN PATIENTS WITH JUVENILE RHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS

PCR-based HLA genotyping was used to analyze the association of HLA-DR and -DQ genes in 127 juvenile rheumatoid arthritis patients and 111 p opulation-based controls from Latvia. The results show DQA103 to be p ositively associated in overall patients and DRB101-DQA1*0101-DQB1*05 01 to be negatively associated with JRA in overall patients and in pol yarthritis patients compared to controls. These data indicate the immu nogenetic heterogeneity in the JRA patients, in the disease subgroups and in different ethnic groups. Rheumatoid factor (RF) was assayed in patients (n=119) and controls (n=98). RF was present in patients (7/11 9, 6%) compared to controls (5/98, 5%). None of the DQA1, DQB1 alleles , DQ and DR-DQ haplotypes was associated in seropositive patients comp ared to seropositive controls. DR1-DQ5 (DQA10l01-B*0501) was decrease d in seronegative patients (11/111, 10%) compared to seronegative cont rols (24/105, 23%), but the difference was not significant after corre ction of the p value.