Immunogenetics and clinical aspects of Takayasu's arteritis patients in a Mexican Mestizo population

Objective The aim of the present work was to study the association between HLA alleles and Takayasu's arteritis in Mexican Mestizo patients. Methods The study included 26 Mexican Mestizo patients with Takayasu's arte ritis and 99 healthy unrelated individuals. HLA-A, -B and -DR alleles were determined by polymerase chain reaction PCR-SSP Results Increased gene frequencies were demonstrated for HLA-B15 (p=0.009, pC=0.020, OR=3.24, EF=11.9%) and HLA-B52 (p=0.008, pC=0.027, OR=5.16, EF=7. 7%), and a decreased frequency for the HLA-A24 allele in patients compared to normal controls (p=0.035, pC=NS, PF=11.1%). When HLA typing was correlat ed to clinical features in 24 cases, we found an increased frequencies of H LA-DR14 in patients with systemic arterial hypertension (p=0.005, pC=0.004, OR=24.6 EF=38.3%) and HLA-A2 on patients with pulmonary involvement (p=0.0 34, pC=0.036, OR=3.67 EF=40.4%) when compared to patients without these cli nical manifestations. Conclusion These data confirm HLA-B52 as a relevant susceptibility allele f or Takayasu's arteritis and suggest that HLA-B15 could be important as a ma rker of the disease in Mexican patients. Other class I and/or class II alle les could also be relevant as markers for the clinical features present in these patients.