title: Association of HLA-DQB1 coding region with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  DNA analysis has shown a lack of significant compatibility between couples affected by unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA) compared with normal fertile couples, [8] although one study that made use of a PCR-sequence-specific oligonucleotide (SSO) method did observe evidence of significant compatibility in the HLA-DQA1 and DQB1 alleles between patients and aborted fetuses. [9] This study was designed to investigate whether URSA were associated with particular DQ alleles or promoter alleles.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-two patients with URSA and 54 women who had had at least one successful pregnancy were included in this study. HLA-DQ genotyping was performed by the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. The HLA-DQB1 promoter was detected by the SSO and sequence-specific primer (SSP) methods. The DQA1, DQB1, and DQB1 promoter (QBP) gene frequencies in the patients were compared with the gene frequencies in normal controls. The data were analyzed statistically with the chi(2) and Fisher's exact tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that the frequency of DQB1 * 0604/0605 was significantly higher and the frequency of DQB1 * 0501/0502 was significantly lower in the patient group as compared with the normal controls. In addition, the frequencies of the DQA1 * 01-DQB1 * 0604/0605 and QBP6.2-DQB1 * 0604/0605 haplotypes were overrepresented in the patients relative to the controls. Our results did not show any differences between URSA patients and the controls with regard to DQA1 and QBP allele frequencies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data suggest that URSA is associated with the HLA-DQB1 coding region, and is not associated with its upstream regulatory region. The DQB1 * 0604/0605, DQA1 * 01-DQB1 * 0604/0605, and QBP6.2-DQB1 * 0604/0605 haplotypes may confer susceptibility to URSA, while the DQB1 * 0501/0502 allele may protect women from URSA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Second Medical University, Shanghai 200001, China.
authors.forename: Xi-Peng
authors.initials: XP
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qi-De
authors.initials: QD
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Pei-Hua
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Zheng-Wen
authors.initials: ZW
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Ai-Min
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000026:Abortion, Habitual / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D059866:HLA-DQ beta-Chains; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011247:Pregnancy
chemical_list: D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens; D059866:HLA-DQ beta-Chains; C069051:HLA-DQB1 antigen