"HUMAN LEUKOCYTE CLASS I AND II ANTIGENS IN IRANIAN PATIENTS WITH COMMON VARIABLE IMMUNODEFICIENCY"

Abstract

Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is a heterogeneous heritable disease characterized by arrest in B cell differentiation. An association between CVID and two HLA haplotypes, haplotype I (HLA-A1, HLA-B8, HLA-DR3) and haplotype II (HLA-A29, HLA-B44, HLADR7)has been previously documented. In the present study, we have attempted to find an association between susceptibility to CVID and HLA class I and II antigens in Iranian population. Seventeen Iranian patients with CVID (mean age 17, range 3-28 years; 12 male and 5 female), including two couples of brothers and 100 healthy controls were studied. All subjects were typed for HLA class 1, and 12 patients and all controls were typed for HLA class II, using microdroplet lymphocytotoxicity technique. Out of 12 CVID patients typed for HLA-DR and DQ specificities, five patients presented DR-1, which showed an increased frequency in patient (41.6% vs. 12% in controls), and 3 presented DQ-2, which also showed an increased frequency (25% vs. 4% in controls), both of which reached statistical significance (P = 0.018 and P = 0.026, respectively). HLA-DR10 was present in 2 patients (16.6%), which was markedly more frequent compared to controls, but this difference was not significant statistically. Our results suggest that HLA-DR1 and DQ-2 may contribute to susceptibility to CVID. We did not find any significant association between HLA-A1, B8 and DR3 that has been previously reported to be associated with CVID.