MOLECULAR-GENETICS OF MAJOR HISTOCOMPATIBILITY COMPLEX CLASS-II GENESIN HEPATOCELLULAR-CARCINOMA

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common malignant tumor of t he liver with a possible genetic predisposition. We have studied the H LA-DQ and -DR regions of 57 unrelated HCC patients of southern Chinese origin using molecular DNA techniques and compared them with 104 norm al controls. Seventy-six hepatitis B carriers (HBsAg) were also studie d. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was used to genotyp e the MHC class II DR beta, DQ alpha, and DQ beta loci of the subjects . Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using sequence specific primer for D Q beta genes was also performed. No significant difference was found i n the HLA-DQ and -DR loci between HCC patients and normal controls, HC C patients and HBsAg carriers, or HBsAg carriers and normal controls r espectively. Forty-one HCC patients were HBsAg positive, and no differ ence was found in the HLA-DQ and -DR genotype between this group of pa tients compared with the group of normal controls or HBsAg carriers. T hirty-six HCC patients had elevated alpha-fetoprotein levels, and 15 H CC patients had normal levels. No difference in the HLA-DQ and -DR loc i was detected between these two groups and the controls. The results suggest that HLA-DQ and -DR genotypes are not associated with hepatoce llular carcinoma in southern Chinese.