HLA-B51 and its allelic types in association with Behcet's disease and recurrent aphthous stomatitis in Korea

Objective This case-control study was undertaken to evaluate the associatio n of HLA-B51 antigen and its allelic types with Behcet's disease (BD) and w ith recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS), to investigate the degree of this association with diagnostic types and clinical variables of BD. Methods The DNA typing of HLA-B51 by nested PCR-SSP was performed in 61 pat ients with BD, 56 patients with RAS, and in 70 healthy controls. Also, blin d quality control study was done to assess the accuracy of nested PCR-SSP i n HLA-B51-positive and negative BD patients on the microlymphocytotoxicity. In addition, direct DNA sequencing analysis was carried out in HLA-B51-pos itive individuals. Results The outcome of nested PCR-SSP showed 100% concordance with those of the microlymphocytotoxicity. The prevalence of HLA-B51 in patients with BD was 55.7%, 16.1% in patients with RAS, and 15.7% in healthy controls. Acco rding to the diagnostic types of BD, all ten patients with complete BD had HLA-B51 antigen, and 47.1% in patients with incomplete BD (p = 0.002). In a ddition, the prevalence of HLA-B51 was statistically significant in patient s with BD who had uveitis (p = 0.003) or erythema nodosum (p = 0.042). Dire ct DNA sequencing analysis revealed that the major allelic types in BD, RAS , and in healthy control were mostly HLA-B*51011. Conclusions Compared to patients with RAS or healthy controls, prevalence o f HLA-B51 in the Korean patients with BD was much higher The BD patients wi th B51 seemed to be susceptible for manifesting uveitis, erythema nodosum, and the full-blown syndrome as complete BD. Therefore the presence of HLA-B 51 antigen in BD patients would be a genetic marker for the severe disease. In addition, there was no difference on the major allelic types of HLA-B51 in BD, PAS, and in health l control.