title: Human leukocyte antigens in forms of leprosy among Japanese patients.
abstract: Human leukocyte antigens (HLA) class II alleles were analyzed among Japanese leprosy patients to ascertain whether immunogenetic differences exist among the leprosy classification forms of Ridley and Jopling. Ninety-three unrelated Japanese leprosy patients (21 lepromatous, 24 borderline lepromatous, 17 mid-borderline, 26 borderline tuberculoid, 5 tuberculoid) and 114 healthy control subjects were investigated. The frequencies of HLA-DRB1*1501, -DRB5*0101, -DQA1*0102 and DQB1*0602 were significantly increased in all of the Japanese leprosy patients. The frequencies of HLA-DRB1*0405, -DQA1*03 and -DQB1*0401 were significantly decreased in the Japanese patients after correction of the p value. Conversely, there were no significantly different distributions of the HLA-DRB1, -DRB5, -DQA1, DQB1 alleles in the five subgroups of these patients. We conclude that HLA class II alleles were not associated with the form of leprosy. Other HLA, a non-HLA gene, and/or environmental factors may play a critical role in the different manifestations of leprosy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Joko
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Numaga
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kawashima
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Namisato
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Maeda
mesh_terms: D003601:Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007918:Leprosy / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D009166:Mycobacterium leprae / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D006680:HLA Antigens; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens