Azizah MR1, Ainol SS2, Kuak SH1, Kong NCT3, Normaznab Y1, Rahim MN4
1. Biotechnology Centre, Institute for Medical Research, Kuala Lumpur
2. Hospital Penang, Penang
3. HUKM, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur
4. Department of Biomedicine, Faculty of Allied Science, UKM. Kuala Lumpur
Correspondence: Dr Azizah Mohd Radzi
CITATION: Azizah MR, Ainol SS, Kuak SH, Kong NCT, Normaznab Y, Rahim MN. The association of major histocompatibility complex genes and susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus among the Malaysian Chinese population. International Medical Research Journal. 2000;4(2):79–84.
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.
KEYWORDS: systemic lupus erythematosus, HLA, susceptibility, autoimmunity, Chinese, Malaysia
