HLA-DPB1 allele associates with early-onset myasthenia gravis in Japan.
We investigated the HLA-DPB1 allele in 43 unrelated Japanese patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) using digestion of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplified DNA with allele-specific restriction endonucleases (PCR-RFLP method). We found a higher frequency of the DPB1*0201 allele in female patients whose ages at onset were less than 30 years (83.3%) than in controls (35.6%). The study also included serologic typing of HLA-A, -B, -C, and -DR antigens in 72 patients with MG, and confirmed previous results demonstrating a strong association of HLA-DR53 with early onset of MG in females. These results indicate that both the DPB1*0201 allele and DR53 play key roles in the disease process of MG in early-onset females, and that the genetic background of Japanese females with early-onset MG is different from that of other patients with MG.
Horiki
T
T
Department of Internal Medicine IV, School of Medicine, Tokai University, Kanagawa, Japan.
Moriuchi
J
J
Inoko
H
H
Morita
K
K
Tsuji
K
K
Shinohara
Y
Y
Ichikawa
Y
Y
Arimori
S
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000483:Alleles; D001483:Base Sequence; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006682:HLA-DP Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D059868:HLA-DP beta-Chains; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012698:Serologic Tests / Q000379:methods; D012737:Sex Factors
D006682:HLA-DP Antigens; D059868:HLA-DP beta-Chains; C071170:HLA-DPB1 antigen; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens