HLA CLASS-II POLYMORPHISM AND IDDM SUSCEPTIBILITY IN THE GREEK POPULATION

The frequencies of HLA-DQA1, DQB1 and DRB1 alleles were compared betwe en 50 Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Melitus (IDDM) patients and 49 health y controls in the Greek population, Statistically significant differen ce in the frequencies of HLA-DQA10501-DQB1*0201 (p = 10(-4)), DQA1*03 01-DQB10201 (P = 0.01) and DQA1*0301-DQB1*0302(P=0.001) were observed . The DRB10405-DQA1*0301-DQB1*0201 was the only DR, DQ combination si gnificantly associated with the disease. The unexpected increase of DR B10405 observed in the Greek IDDM may suggest as reported in Chinese and Japanese IDDM a contribution of DRbeta and DQalpha in susceptibili ty. Moreover, in contrast to the Asians, in the Greek, the DRbeta, DQa lpha are found with the usual DQbeta 57-ve.