title: HLA antigens in  alcoholics, with special reference to alcoholic cirrhosis.
abstract: HLA antigen determination showed that the frequency of HLA-B40 was significantly increased (49%) in 43 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis, compared with the frequency found in 234 healthy blood donors (18%). The HLA-B40 frequency was not increased in three other patient groups: 36 patients with alcoholic liver disease without cirrhosis (14%), 21 patients with miscellaneous liver disease (24%), and 26 alcoholics without liver disease (24%). We could not confirm the previously reported association between advanced alcoholic liver damage and HLA-B8, which has been taken as support for the relation to autoimmune mechanisms. The association with HLA-B40, however, favours the idea that genetically determined individual susceptibility to alcoholic liver cirrhosis may exist.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008104:Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens