title: Equine leucocyte antigens in sarcoid-affected horses.
abstract: The distribution of equine leucocyte antigens (ELA) in horses affected by equine sarcoid tumours was determined and compared with unaffected controls. ELA-haplotype W3,B1 occurred more frequently in affected riding horses of Irish, Swiss and French background. The combined data for the three breeds resulted in a chi 2 value of 20.35 (P less than 0.0005 after correction). Simultaneously, ELA-specificity W11 was more frequently found in horses of Irish background, while W5 was found in Swiss and French horses with sarcoids. The combined data for haplotype W3,B1 and/or W5 specificity demonstrated, in the genetically closely-related Swiss and French horses, a highly significant difference in the occurrence of these haplotypes between affected horses and healthy controls (chi 2 = 28.69, P less than 0.00001 after correction). Thus, the results strongly suggest that the predisposition of horses to sarcoid is associated with or linked to the major histocompatibility complex.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000276:immunology*; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D006736:Horses; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex; D008297:Male; D012507:Sarcoidosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000662:veterinary*; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000662:veterinary*
chemical_list: D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II