title: Disease due to Mycobacterium intracellulare: its possible association with human leukocyte antigens.
abstract: Most of the population of the United States is exposed to Mycobacterium intracellulare, but only a few persons develop disease due to this organism. This fact suggests that certain host factors may predispose an individual to this disease. To investigate the possibility that susceptibility to disease due to M. intracellulare may be determined by genetic factors, as evidenced in profiles of human leukocyte antigens (HLAs), we examined 41 consecutive patients with use of tissue typing for HLA-A and HLA-B loci. The association in individuals between disease and frequency of HLAs was analyzed and compared with control data of HLA frequencies in the caucasian American population. The observed frequencies of many HLAs were different from those expected, but none of the individual differences were significant statistically. However, the frequency of the haplotype A2-B12 was found to be significantly higher than the expected frequency (P less than 0.05). While the population of patients studied was small, the observed increase in the haplotype frequency may indicate a possible predisposing genetic factor in this disease.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009164:Mycobacterium Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D009165:Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens