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HLA‐DP ANTIGENS AND HTLV‐1 ANTIBODY STATUS AMONG JAPANESE WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: EVIDENCE FOR AN INCREASED FREQUENCY OF HLA‐DPw4.
Author(s) -
ØDum N.,
Saida T.,
Ohta M.,
Svejgaard A.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
international journal of immunogenetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.41
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1744-313X
pISSN - 1744-3121
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-313x.1989.tb00496.x
Subject(s) - human leukocyte antigen , multiple sclerosis , immunology , hla a , antigen , antibody , medicine , virology
SUMMARY Previously, an association between multiple sclerosis (MS) and HLA‐DPw4 has been reported in Scandinavians. In the present study, the distribution of HLA‐DP antigens was studied in 34 Japanese MS patients, a11 of whom fulfilled the criteria for definite MS. HLA‐DP typings for DPwl through w6 and the local specificity, CDP‐HEI, were performed using the primed lymphocyte typing (PLT) technique. In addition, the patients were typed for a DR2 +, Dw2 +/Dw12–related, PLT defined specificity. The distribution of DPw1‐w5 in 121 healthy, unrelated Japanese controls were from Nishimura et al ., 198 4; Nishimura, personal communication). Sera from all 34 patients and 38 controls (both from the HTLV‐1 non‐endemic, Kyoto region) were examined for the presence of HTLV‐1 reacting antibodies by a highly sensitive radioimmuno assay (RIA) using two sources of HTLV‐1 antigens, namely total crude protein preparations from disrupted HTLV‐1 virions and affinity purified p24 HTLV‐1 core proteins. The frequency of DPw4 was significantly increased to 35.3% in Japanese MS patients compared to 16.5% in controls (Relative Risk, RR = 2.8, p = 1.9 × 10 −2 ). 41.6% of the MS patients gave clear typing responses with a PLT reagent which recognized a Dw2+ related specificity, which is higher than the frequency of Dw2 (6.8%) in Japanese. Fourteen of the 34 patient sera contrasting to none of the sera from 38 controls contained antibodies of IgG and/or IgM subclasses reacting with the HTLV‐1 derived antigens. This difference is highly significant ( P < 1 × 10 −5 ). However, there was no association between DP or Dw2 phenotypes and antibody status. These data provide evidence that genes within (or closely linked to) the HLA‐DP region confer susceptibility to MS in two genetically different ethnic groups: Japanese and Scandinavians.