The type 1 diabetes protective HLA DQB1*0602 allele is less frequent in gestational diabetes mellitus.
OBJECTIVE
We tested whether gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with HLA-DQ genotypes.


METHODS
A total of 764 mothers with non-autoimmune (GAD65, insulinoma-associated protein 2 [IA-2] and insulin autoantibody-negative) GDM were ascertained between September 2000 and August 2004 in the population-based Diabetes Prediction in Skåne (DiPiS) study. HLA-DQB1 genotypes were determined in these mothers and in 1191 randomly selected non-diabetic control mothers also negative for islet autoantibodies. The data were analysed in relation to maternal age, country of birth, number of pregnancies/siblings and pregnancy weight gain.


RESULTS
The frequency of type 1 diabetes high-risk HLA-DQ alleles (DQB1*0201, DQB1*0302) did not differ between GDM mothers and controls. In contrast, the low-risk DQB1*0602 allele was less prevalent (OR 0.64, 95% CI = 0.51-0.80, p = 0.0006) in GDM than in control mothers. The difference in DQB1*0602 frequency between GDM mothers and controls remained after multiple logistic regression analysis correcting for maternal age, country of birth, number of pregnancies/siblings and weight gain during pregnancy (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.51-0.88, p = 0.009).


CONCLUSIONS
The negative association between mothers who have non-autoimmune GDM and HLA-DQ*0602 suggest that this allele may protect not only from type 1 diabetes but also from GDM.
Department of Clinical Sciences, Unit of Diabetes and Celiac Disease, Lund University/CRC, Malmö, Sweden. Anastasia.Papadopoulou@med.lu.se
A
A
Papadopoulou
K F
KF
Lynch
N
N
Shaat
A
A
Nilsson
B
B
Lernmark
K
K
Berntorp
S-A
SA
Ivarsson
C-D
CD
Agardh
A
A
Lernmark
D000483:Alleles; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D016640:Diabetes, Gestational / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D005838:Genotype; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D059866:HLA-DQ beta-Chains; D006801:Humans; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors
D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens; D059866:HLA-DQ beta-Chains; C069051:HLA-DQB1 antigen; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins