title: HL-A frequencies in patients with multiple sclerosis.
abstract: The histocompatibility antigens (HL-A) have been determined in 100 multiple sclerosis (M.S.) patients and 140 randomly selected controls. In the M.S. group there was a statistically significant increase in the frequency of HL-A 7 and W 18 with an insignificant increase in HL-A 3. The variance from normal HL-A patterns in the M.S. population may play some role in establishing the substrate for this disease. Studies in experimental animals have shown that susceptibility to autoimmune disease and to virus infection is linked to the major histocompatibility locus. This has interesting implications for both the "slow virus" and the "autoimmune" theories of the etiology of multiple sclerosis.
mesh_terms: D001327:Autoimmune Diseases; D006680:HLA Antigens; D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens; D006801:Humans; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology*; D011051:Poliomyelitis / Q000150:complications
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens; D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens