The incidence of HLA DRB1*0103 in ulcerative colitis patients in north-eastern Poland.
OBJECTIVE
Susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease is partially genetically determined and the HLA (human leukocyte antigen) alloantigens and genes located in the HLA region have been studied over the course of many years as the candidate genes responsible for ulcerative colitis. Improvements in molecular genotyping have allowed disease association with HLA to be narrowed down to specific subtypes. For class II antigens, increasing phenotype frequency of DRB1*0103, DRB1*1502 is observed and positive correlation to disease susceptibility is proposed. We investigated the incidence of HLA DRB1*0103 in ulcerative colitis patients in North-Eastern Poland and possible association with overall disease susceptibility and clinical course of the disease.


METHODS
41 patients and 45 healthy control blood donors were included in this study. All subjects were Polish.


RESULTS
The incidence of HLA DRB1*0103 was low (2.44%), but was associated with fulminant course of the disease (pancolitis with megacolon toxicum). None of the ethnically matched healthy control blood donors possessed the HLA DRB1*0103 allele (0.00%).


CONCLUSIONS
The results gained in the presented study confirm, that in the Polish population HLA DRB1*0103 allele is uncommon and it would not be a useful marker of disease susceptibility.
Department of Infectious Diseases Medical University of Bialystok, 15-540 Bialystok, Zurawia 14, Poland. doctors@priv.onet.pl
B
B
Puzanowska
D
D
Prokopowicz
S
S
Ziarko
P
P
Radziwon
T W
TW
Lapinski
D000328:Adult; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains