HLA class I and II typing of the patients with Behcet's disease in Saudi Arabia

Thirteen Saudi Arabian patients with Behcet's disease (BD) were typed for H LA-A and -B alleles by the conventional serologic typing and for HLA-DRB1, -DQB1 and -DPB1 alleles by the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragme nt length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. As a result, the phenotype freque ncy of the B51 antigen was significantly increased in the patient group as compared to the ethnically matched control group (76.9% in patients vs. 22. 2% in controls), but no significant difference was observed in HLA-A, -DRB1 , -DQB1 or -DPB1 alleles between the patients and controls, as previously o bserved in Japanese BD. Further, by HLA-B51 allelic genotyping performed by the polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) method, all of the B51-positive patients and controls were found to carry one parti cular allele, B*5101, except one patient with B*5108.