title: Association of HLA-DRw9 with myasthenia gravis in Chinese.
abstract: HLA phenotypes were studied in 59 Chinese myasthenia gravis (MG) patients. Unfractionated peripheral blood mononuclear cells were used for typing of HLA-A, B and C, and B-enriched lymphocytes for HLA-DR. Seventy-nine healthy subjects were included as controls. When compared with healthy controls, the patients showed significant increases in HLA-Bw46 (47.5% versus 14%, chi 2 = 18.7, P less than 0.001), HLA-DRw9 (59.3% versus 11%, chi 2 = 35.7, P less than 0.001), while HLA-DR3 was decreased (3.4% versus 32.9%, chi 2 = 18.2, P less than 0.001). Further analysis showed that the primary association was with DRw9 and the increase in Bw46 was secondary to it. Both HLA-Bw46 and -DRw9 were increased in all subgroups except where the age of onset was greater than 40 years. Finally, the HLA-A2-Bw46-DRw9 combination was also significantly increased in patients (25.4% versus 5.1%, chi 2 = 11.5, P less than 0.001), especially in the subgroups of MG with age of onset of less than 10 and males with age of onset of less than 40 years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Republic of China.
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: T P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Hung
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D006681:HLA-D Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D059810:HLA-DR Serological Subtypes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens; D006681:HLA-D Antigens; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D059810:HLA-DR Serological Subtypes; C038988:HLA-DR9 antigen