Increased frequency of the HLA-DR15 (BI*15011) allele in German patients with self-limited hepatitis C virus infection

Background A genetically determined resistance or susceptibility to chronic hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) may make an important contribution to th e course of liver disease and may be linked to the human major histocompati bility complex. Design Twenty-one subjects with self-limited HCV infection as assessed by t he presence of HCV antibodies, absence of HCV-RNA and normal levels of amin otransferases for 2 years were identified from a large pool of blood donors . The frequency of HLA serotypes of these individuals was compared with 49 consecutive patients with chronic hepatitis C. Results We detected a significantly higher prevalence of HLA-DR15 in patien ts with self-limited HCV infection than in patients with chronic hepatitis C (10/21 vs. 6/49; relative risk 6.5; P = 0.02; corrected for multiple comp arisons). To confirm KLA assignments by serotyping we also performed sequen cing of HLA-DR types in the 27 patients (9 with self-limited infection, 18 with chronic hepatitis C) who had been enrolled during 1995-96. This analys is confirmed the predominance of HLA-DR15 (HLA-DRB1*15011) in self-limited HCV infection (4/9 vs. 1/18; relative risk 13.6; P = 0.03). Conclusions Our data suggest that HLA-DR15 (B1*15011) might constitute an i mportant genetic factor for the elimination of the hepatitis C virus in Ger many.