The homozygote of HLA-DRB1*0901, not its heterozygote, is associated with rheumatoid arthritis in Japanese.
To assess the association between HLA-DRB1*0901 and Japanese rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, we analyzed the frequency of HLA-DRB1*0901 in 852 Japanese RA patients. We found that the homozygote of DRB1*0901 was associated with Japanese RA patients, while the heterozygote of DRB1*0901 was not. These findings suggest that DRB1*0901 is a weakly susceptible allele of RA, which in our investigation was not associated with RA by a single allele, but can be by a homozygote. DRB1*0901 does not have the shared epitope, and it is suggested that there may be some mechanism ofthe association between HLA-DRB1 and RA other than the shared epitope, which was not strong.
Wakitani
S
S
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Osaka-Minami National Hospital, Osaka, Japan.
Imoto
K
K
Murata
N
N
Toda
Y
Y
Ogawa
R
R
Ochi
T
T
D000483:Alleles; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000235:genetics*; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D018628:Gene Dosage; D005787:Gene Frequency; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains; D006579:Heterozygote; D006720:Homozygote; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan
D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains; D004247:DNA