HLA-DQB1 AND HLA-DPB1 GENOTYPES IN FAMILIAL SARCOIDOSIS

Numerous reports on the familial occurrence of sarcoidosis, on regiona lly different prevalences and on its associations with genetic polymor phisms point to the existence of predisposing genes. We have started t o establish a collection of DNA from families with two or more sarcoid osis patients for the purpose of genetic linkage and association studi es. In this report we present HLA class II genotypes of affected first -degree relatives from 17 families, including eight instances of affec ted parent and offspring, six sib pairs, and three sib triplets. Genot yping for HLA-DQB1 revealed an over-representation of DQB10603 and DQ B10604 among alleles shared by affected first degree relatives. The s ame was found for HLA-DPB10201 (Glu69 positive). However, none of the sib triplets had any of these alleles in common.