[Type I herpes virus, HLA phenotype and Behçet disease].
BACKGROUND
The pathogenic factors of Behçet's disease (BD) differentiate according to geographical zones. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible relation between this process and infection by type I herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) in Spain.


METHODS
The prevalence of antibodies vs HSV-1 and cytomegalovirus (CMV) was studied by complement fixation in three series: A) 34 patients with BD; B) 21 with primary uveitis; C) 40 controls. HSV-1 specificity was established by ELISA. HLA typing was performed in 32 individuals from series A.


RESULTS
The frequency of anti HSV-1 in A (76%) was greater (p = 0.045) than in C (55%) and B (66%). These differences were more evident when titers equal/superior to 1/64 were considered as positive, with this being a value exceeding the 97.5% percentage of the control series (A = 21%, C = 2%, p = 0.015), specially for the ocular BD subgroup (26%, p = 0.011 with respect to C). The B series did not differ from C (p = 0.88). To the contrary no differences were observed in the distribution of titers vs CMV. Although a greater frequency of anti HSV-1 was observed in HLA-B51+ the differences were not significant (p = 0.09).


CONCLUSIONS
The frequency of evaluable titers of anti-HSV-1 is greater in patients with BD (specially with ocular involvement) than in the control series. No association was found between higher titers and HLA PB51+ phenotype.
Sánchez Román
J
J
Unidad de Colagenosis y Servicio de Microbiología, Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla.
Castillo Palma
M J
MJ
Torronteras Santiago
R
R
Varela Aguilar
J M
JM
López Checa
F
F
Sánchez García
F
F
D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000209:etiology*; D006561:Herpes Simplex / Q000150:complications* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans
D000914:Antibodies, Viral
Virus herpes tipo I, fenotipo HLA y enfermedad de Behçet.