Human leukocyte antigens in forms of leprosy among Japanese patients

Human leukocyte antigens (HLA) class II alleles were analyzed among Japanes e leprosy patients to ascertain whether immunogenetic differences exist amo ng the leprosy classification forms of Ridley and Jopling. Ninety-three unr elated Japanese leprosy patients (21 lepromatous, 24 borderline lepromatous . 17 mid-borderline, 26 borderline tuberculoid, 5 tuberculoid) and 114 heal thy control subjects were investigated. The frequencies of HLA-DRB1*1501, - DRB5*0101, -DQA1*0102 and DQB1*0602 were significantly increased in all of the Japanese leprosy patients. The frequencies of HLA-DRB1*0405, -DQA1*03 a nd -DQB1*0401 were significantly decreased in the Japanese patients after c orrection of the p value. Conversely, there were no significantly different distributions of the HLA-DRB1, -DRB5, -DQA1, DQB1 alleles in the five subg roups of these patients. We conclude that HLA class II alleles were not ass ociated with the form of leprosy. Other HLA, a non-HLA gene, and/or environ mental factors may play a critical role in the different manifestations of leprosy.