Analysis of the phenotypic distribution of HLA class I and class II in atopic and non-atopic asthma patients

In several studies the HLA system has been implicated in the development of asthma, but the importance of the associations between HLA genes and asthm a remains unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the HLA class I a nd II phenotypic frequencies in a population of asthmatics, and to analyse the relationship between these phenotypes and any type of asthma. We typed HLA class I and II antigens in a series of 189 asthmatic individuals (102 a topic and 87 non-atopic), and in a control population of 150 unrelated heal thy Caucasoid donors. When the HLA phenotypic frequencies were compared, no statistical differences were found. Therefore, no definitive HLA associati on could be established with atopic or non-atopic asthma in the studied pop ulation.