Associations of HLA-DP Variants with Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Southern and Northern Han Chinese Populations: A Multicenter Case-Control Study

Background Human leukocyte antigen DP ( HLA-DP ) locus has been reported to be associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in populations of Japan and Thailand. We aimed to examine whether the association can be replicated in Han Chinese populations. Methodology/Principal Findings Two HLA-DP variants rs2395309 and rs9277535 (the most strongly associated SNPs from each HLA-DP locus) were genotyped in three independent Han cohorts consisting of 2 805 cases and 1 796 controls. By using logistic regression analysis, these two SNPs in the HLA-DPA1 and HLA-DPB1 genes were significantly associated with HBV infection in Han Chinese populations ( P  = 0.021∼3.36×10 −8 at rs2395309; P  = 8.37×10 −3 ∼2.68×10 −10 at rs9277535). In addition, the genotype distributions of both sites (rs2395309 and rs9277535) were clearly different between southern and northern Chinese population ( P  = 8.95×10 −5 at rs2395309; P  = 1.64×10 −9 at rs9277535). By using asymptomatic HBV carrier as control group, our study showed that there were no associations of two HLA-DP variants with HBV progression ( P  = 0.305∼0.822 and 0.163∼0.881 in southern Chinese population, respectively; P  = 0.097∼0.697 and 0.198∼0.615 in northern Chinese population, respectively). Conclusions Our results confirmed that two SNPs (rs2395309 and rs9277535) in the HLA-DP loci were strongly associated with HBV infection in southern and northern Han Chinese populations, but not with HBV progression.