Behçet's disease associated with one of the HLA-B51 subantigens, HLA-B* 5101.
The strong association of Behçet's disease with HLA-B51 in several ethnic groups is well known. Because the HLA-B51 antigen has been recently identified to comprise three alleles, HLA-B* 5101, HLA-B* 5102, and HLA-B* 5103, we sought to investigate whether there is any correlation of one particular allele among them with B51-positive patients with Behçet's disease. Forty-six Japanese patients with Behçet's disease and HLA-B51 were typed by using the alloantisera, which allowed the subdivision of B51 antigen by the microlymphocyte toxicity assay. All the patients were found to carry HLA-B* 5101. This result suggests that amino acid substitutions at residue 167 or 171 prevent the development of Behçet's disease, because HLA-B* 5101 differs from HLA-B* 5102 and HLA-B* 5103 by single amino acid substitution at residues 171 and 167, respectively, or that another non-HLA gene tightly linked to the HLA-B* 5101-associated haplotype around the HLA class I gene region is responsible for the susceptibility to Bechçet's disease. This study provides insight into the molecular mechanism underlying an HLA association with Behçet's disease.
Mizuki
N
N
Department of Ophthalmology, Yokohama City University School of Medicine, Japan.
Inoko
H
H
Ando
H
H
Nakamura
S
S
Kashiwase
K
K
Akaza
T
T
Fujino
Y
Y
Masuda
K
K
Takiguchi
M
M
Ohno
S
S
D000483:Alleles; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000208:ethnology / Q000276:immunology*; D015235:HLA-B Antigens / Q000145:classification*; D059949:HLA-B51 Antigen; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D007564:Japan
D015235:HLA-B Antigens; D059949:HLA-B51 Antigen