[Extensive HLA class II studies in Chinese narcoleptic patients].
OBJECTIVE
Narcolepsy is a debilitating, lifelong sleep disorder. Its familial occurrence suggests that genetic factors may be of importance in the etiology. Narcolepsy is a very rare disease among Chinese, thus it was of interest to study the association of narcolepsy with the HLA system in Chinese narcoleptic patients.


METHODS
To explore the role of HLA-DRB genes in the development of narcolepsy, we studied 10 narcoleptic patients and 50 race matched controls in whom HLA-DR typing was performed by the method of DNA amplification with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP).


RESULTS
All narcoleptic patients were found to be of DRB1 * 1501 and DRB5 * 0101 genotype.


CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that HLA-DRB1 * 1501 is a better primary candidate susceptibility gene for narcolepsy in Chinese.
Xiao
Y
Y
Department of Respiratory Diseases, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730.
Huang
X
X
Qiu
C
C
Zhu
X
X
Liu
Y
Y
D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains; D059847:HLA-DRB5 Chains; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009290:Narcolepsy / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic
D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains; C489631:HLA-DRB1*15:01 antigen; D059847:HLA-DRB5 Chains; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II