Pkt. Li et al., NO ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HLA-DQ AND HLA-DR GENOTYPES WITH NASOPHARYNGEAL CARCINOMA IN SOUTHERN CHINESE, Cancer genetics and cytogenetics, 81(1), 1995, pp. 42-45
The pathogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is multifactorial.
Associations have been reported between HLA and NPC. We studied the HL
A-DR and -DQ regions on the molecular level in 136 persons (51 NPC pat
ients and 85 healthy controls) from southern China, a particularly hig
h-prevalence area for NPC. Restriction fragment-length polymorphism (R
FLP) was used to genotype the MHC class II DR beta, DQ alpha, and DQ b
eta regions of the subjects. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using seq
uence-specific primer (SSP) for DQ beta genes was also performed. By R
FLP, no significant difference was observed with respect to DR beta, D
QA, and DQB genes. By PCR SSP typing, we confirmed that there was no s
ignificant difference between NPC patients and controls with respect t
o DQ beta alleles. Our study suggests that HLA-DQ and -DR genes are no
t associated with NPC in southern Chinese and there may be other gene
loci that predispose them to have such a high prevalence of the diseas
e.