SUBTYPES OF HLA-DRB1-ASTERISK-03, ASTERISK-08, ASTERISK-11, ASTERISK-12, ASTERISK-13 AND ASTERISK-14 IN EARLY-ONSET PAUCIARTICULAR JUVENILECHRONIC ARTHRITIS (EOPA) WITH AND WITHOUT IRIDOCYCLITIS

A set of 200 patients with early onset pauciarticular juvenile chronic arthritis (EOPA-JCA) from Munich (165) and Prague(35) was investigate d for the subtypes of HLA-DRB103, *08, *11, *12, *13 and *14. In addi tion, the relationship of DRB1, DQA1, DQB1 and DPB1 alleles with irido cyclitis inpatients with EOPA-JCA was investigated Subtyping for DRB1 03 was not informative, as all DR3 positive patients and all except on e of the controls possessed DRB0301. Thus, the role of DRB1*0302 coul d not be assessed. The subtypes for DRB112, *13, and *14 did not reve al any statistically significant difference between patients and contr ols. In contrast, the subtype DRB11104 was the one most strongly asso ciated with EOPA-JCA (chi2 31.2, p value < 10(-6)). It appears that th e subtype DRB11103 may also be associated with EOPA-JCA. The associat ion of EOPA-JCA with DR8 is almost exclusively due to the subtype 080 1. For the other alleles 0802, *0803, and *0804 there is no evidence for or against involvement in JCA. The analysis of iridocyclitis in EO PA-JCA revealed that DRB11104 is not more frequent in patients with e ye disease than in patients without eye disease. The presence of DRB1 01 appears to convey some protective effect against the occurrence of iridiocyclitis in EOPA-JCA, as had been previously observed by Melin-A ldana et al.