ABSENCE OF ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HLA ANTIGENS AND CHRONICITY OF VIRAL-HEPATITIS IN HEMODIALYZED PATIENTS

The role of HLA antigens in the chronicity of viral hepatitis is still being debated. We analyzed the relation between HLA status and viral hepatitis in 558 consecutive haemodialyzed patients who underwent kidn ey transplantation. HLA A, B, DR status, ABO-Rh blood group, duration of haemodialysis, and number of blood units transfused during the dial ysis period were known for all patients. Serological status for hepati tis B virus and hepatitis C virus and results of liver biopsies were a vailable in 495, 300 and 316 patients, respectively. After correction for the number of tests performed, frequencies of HLA antigens did not differ significantly for: 1. hepatitis B virus infection (compared to HBsAg-positive and anti-HBc and/or anti-HBs-positive nonvaccinated pa tients); 2. hepatitis C virus infection (compared to anti-HCV-negative and -positive patients); 3. histopathological status (compared to pat ients who had chronic viral hepatitis and those who did not). These re sults suggest that there is no evidence for a significant role of a pa rticular HLA antigen in the development of chronic viral hepatitis in haemodialysis patients with similar underlying immunosuppression and e xposure to infection by hepatotropic viruses. (C) Journal of Hepatolog y.