HLA-DM POLYMORPHISMS DO NOT ASSOCIATE WITH MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS - AN ASSOCIATION STUDY WITH ANALYSIS OF MYELIN BASIC-PROTEIN T-CELL SPECIFICITY

The MHC region on 6p harbors at least one susceptibility gene for mult iple sclerosis (MS). Within this: region, HLA-DM loci are of interest being involved in class II antigen processing. We investigated the ass ociation of HLA-DM polymorphisms with MS. Sixty-three patients with MS and 46 healthy controls from continental Italy were typed for HLA-DM polymorphisms and HLA-DRB1 alleles. Besides, among the donors characte rized for the DM polymorphisms, we considered 6 MS patients previously studied for the fine specificity of their MBP-specific T lymphocyte l ines (TLL). The frequencies of allelic variants at the DMA and DMB loc i were similar between MS patients and controls, even when HLA-DRB115 01 positive and negative donors were analyzed separately. Patients wit h predominant responses to different MBP epitopes did not differ for t heir HLA-DM haplotype while patients with predominant responses to the same MBP epitope could present different HLA-DM haplotypes. HLA-DM po lymorphisms do not associate with MS and may not affect specific patte rns of T cell responses to MBP. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.