HLA CLASS-I, CLASS-II, AND CLASS-III POLYMORPHISM IN ITALIAN PATIENTSWITH SARCOIDOSIS

We studied the HLA polymorphisms (class I, II, and III) in 107 Italian patients with biopsy specimen-proven sarcoidosis in order to investig ate the immunogenetic background of this disease. The mean age of onse t of the disease was 36.08 +/- 12.4 years. Four patients (3.73 percent ) were in radiologic stage 0, 38 patients (35.51 percent) were in radi ologic stage 1, 40 patients (37.38 percent) were in stage 11, and 25 ( 23.36 percent) were in stage III. Thirty-eight patients (35.51 percent ) had one or more extrapulmonary localization(s) of the disease. Posit ive association between sarcoidosis and HLA-B8 (chi2 = 6.07, p = 0.012 7, RR = 1.91) was confirmed. Regarding the age of onset of the disease , HLA-B35 was more frequent (chi2 = 7.34, p = 0.0056, pc <0.05, RR = 4 .62) i'' patients with early onset of symptoms and/or signs, before th e mean age of 36 years. With reference to the radiologic stage of the disease, HLA class II marker DR3 was more frequent in patients with st age I (chi2 = 7.22, p = 0.0061, pc < 0.05, RR = 7.08). No significant relationship was found between sarcoidosis and HLA class III markers. These results seem to confirm an association of sarcoidosis with HLA c lassic genes and can sustain the hypothesis of a genetic heterogeneity of this disease.