title: Increased incidence of certain TCR and HLA genes associated with myasthenia gravis in Italians.
abstract: In order to study the immunogenetics of myasthenia gravis (MG), we analysed the TCR and HLA-class II genes from Italian and Californian myasthenic patients. We investigated polymorphisms of the TCR using the full length cDNA probes pGA5 and the pT10 for the alpha and beta chains, respectively. The 6.3 kb and 2.0 kb polymorphic markers, revealed by the PssI enzyme and the alpha chain probe, were shown to be significantly associated with MG. Italian MG patients were HLA typed, and allele frequencies showed a significant association of DR3 and DQw2 with MG. The relative risk calculated for DR3 was 7.4. T-cell proliferative responses to peptides of the AchR alpha chain were also studied and no associations with TCR RFLP analysis or HLA-class II typing were observed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, CA 94305.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mantegazza
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Oksenberg
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baggi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Antozzi
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Illeni
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pellegris
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cornelio
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Steinman
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D015342:DNA Probes; D006681:HLA-D Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007558:Italy; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000494:pharmacology; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000235:genetics*; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D015342:DNA Probes; D006681:HLA-D Antigens; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic