The association of major histocompatibility complex genes and susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus among the Malaysian Chinese population

Abstract

To determine whether the HLA class II genes, HLA-DR, DQ and DP, carry increased risk to the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), we studied the frequency of HLA-DR antigens and HLA-DQA and DQB. and DPB alleles among 70 Malaysian Chinese patients with SLE and compared them to 66 ethnically matched healthy controls by the modified PCR-RFLP technique. The ITLA-DR antigens did not show any significant association with SLE. However. a significantly increased frequency of HLA-DQA1 *0102 was found among the patients (43.6 vs. 33.3%. p= 0.004) and even after correction showed significant result (p corr= 0.03. RR - 3.39). HLA-DQB1*0501 and *0601 were found increased among the patients and remained significant even after correction was made (RR= 4.55 and 4.22 respectively). HLA-DPB1*0901 was also significantly associated with the disease, with a relative risk of 4.58. Our findings suggest that the DQA1*0102, DQB1*0501, *0601 and HLA-DPB1*0901 genes may contribute towards determining SLE disease susceptibility among the Malaysian Chinese population.