RELATIVE IMPACT OF HLA PHENOTYPE AND CD4-CD8 RATIOS ON THE CLINICAL EXPRESSION OF HEMOCHROMATOSIS

Hemochromatosis is a hereditary iron-overload disease linked to HLA. T he clinical expression of hemochromatosis is influenced by sex and age , However, other factors must account for the notorious heterogeneity of expression of the disease independent of sex, age, and HLA phenotyp e. The present study attempts to clarify some of these additional fact ors based on exhaustive statistical analysis of data collected from 43 selected patients with hemochromatosis, The statistical analysis focu sed on three groups of variables: the first group included variables r eflecting the clinical expression of the disease; the second group rep resented the biochemical and hematological values at the time of diagn osis; and the third group consisted of the independent variables sex, age, HLA phenotype, and T-cell subset profile, i.e., the percentages a nd total numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ cells and the CD4-CD8 ratios. The re sults show that the relative expansion of the two main T-cell subsets, in the context of the HLA phenotype, correlates significantly with th e clinical expression of hemochromatosis and the severity of iron over load. The present findings substantiate further the postulate that T c ells have a role in the regulation of iron metabolism.