An association between mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis and human leukocyte antigens.
OBJECTIVE
Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS) is one of the medically intractable epilepsies that may be remediable with surgery. Although the pathogenesis of HS still remains obscure, genetics may play a role as a predisposing factor, with the genetically controlled immune system as one of its aspects. Our aim in this study was to investigate whether there is any association between human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) that are related to chromosome 6 and this specific type of epilepsy.


METHODS
HLA class I and II typing were performed with the microlymphocytotoxicity method on 65 Turkish patients with MTLE-HS and on 184 healthy controls.


RESULTS
Our study revealed a significantly high frequency of class II antigens HLA-DQ2, -DR4, and -DR7 alleles and the combination of HLA-DR4-DQ2, and DR7-DQ2 alleles.


CONCLUSIONS
The HLA alleles that occur with increased frequency in many HLA- associated conditions appear to serve as risk factors that increase susceptibility but are not essential for disease expression. Our data support the role of genetic factors in the development of HS, possibly related to early childhood events that may act as a trigger factor to initiate the cascade in genetically prone patients with specific HLA types to give rise to MTLE eventually.
Ozkara
Cigdem
C
Institute of Neurological Sciences, University of Istanbul, Turkey. cigdemoz@anet.net.tr
Altintas
Ayse
A
Yilmaz
Erkan
E
Eskazan
Esat
E
Erkol
Gökhan
G
Ozyurt
Emin
E
Erdogan
Ergun
E
Kuday
Cengiz
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D002648:Child; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D015804:HLA-DR4 Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D015809:HLA-DR7 Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012598:Sclerosis
D006680:HLA Antigens; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens; C053186:HLA-DQ2 antigen; D015804:HLA-DR4 Antigen; D015809:HLA-DR7 Antigen