title: Association between hepatitis B virus infection and HLA-DR type in Korea.
abstract: Although the mechanism of susceptibility to chronic persistent hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is not well clarified, immunogenetic factors of the host may have a role. Recently, a strong association between HLA-DR13 and the self-limited course of HBV infection has been reported. To determine whether the elimination of HBV is related to a particular HLA allele, we studied the HBV markers and HLA-DR phenotypes of 1,272 Koreans who had visited Yonsei University Medical Center for renal transplantation. They included 330 renal transplant donors. Subjects were categorized into 3 different groups: the "Unexposed Group" (UE; n = 946) with negative HBV markers, the "Chronic Carrier Group" (CC; n = 83), who were hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive, and the "Spontaneously Cleared Group" (SC; n = 243), who were HBsAg-negative with antibodies to HBsAg (anti-HBs) and hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc). HLA-DR4 was the most common type in all groups. HLA-DR6 was significantly more frequent in 69 of 243 subjects with SC (28. 4%) than in 8 of 83 subjects with CC (9.6%) (P <.001; relative risk [RR] = 3.72). HLA-DR9 was significantly more frequent in CC than in SC (P <.001; RR = 0.33). HLA-DR13 showed a stronger association with the clearance of HBV than the other HLA-DR6 subgroup. The distribution of HLA-DR phenotypes was similar regardless of renal disease. Our data indicate that HLA-DR6, especially HLA-DR13, is one of the host factors, which influences the immune response to HBV, and may be associated with self-elimination of HBV in Koreans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Institute of Gastroenterology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chon
authors.forename: Y S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Moon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002353:Carrier State / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000145:classification*; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000276:immunology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous
chemical_list: D006684:HLA-DR Antigens