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HLA antigens in patients with interferon-alpha-induced autoimmune thyroid disorders in chronic hepatitis C
S Kakizaki1, H Takagi, M Murakami
1The First Department of Internal Medicine, Gunma University School of Medicine, Maebashi, Japan. kakizaki@news.sb.gunma-u.ac.jp
Background/Aims:
To determine the immunological predisposition to autoimmune thyroid disorders induced by interferon-alpha therapy, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) was analyzed in patients with chronic hepatitis C who developed autoimmune thyroid disorders during or after treatment with interferon-alpha.
Methods:
Four hundred and thirty-nine patients with chronic hepatitis C (278 males and 161 females, aged 20-73 years) were treated with interferon-alpha (natural-alpha, 169; alpha-2a, 82; alpha-2b, 188) for 24 weeks.
Results:
Seventeen of 439 (3.9%) patients developed symptomatic autoimmune thyroid disorders; these included nine cases of hyperthyroidism and eight cases of hypothyroidism. The incidence of HLA-A2, B46 and Cw7 increased in patients with interferon-alpha-induced autoimmune thyroid disorders. Especially, the incidence of HLA-A2 (15/17; 88.2%) was significantly higher than that observed in the general population in Japan (corrected p-value (p(c)): p(c)<0.003). The odds ratios for the relative risk of the autoimmune thyroid disorders were A2, 10.6 [95% confidence interval, 2.4-46.5]; B46, 4.8 [1.6-14.0]; and Cw7, 3.0 [1.1-7.9].
Conclusions:
Our study revealed that HLA-A2 is highly linked to the autoimmune thyroid disorders induced by interferon-alpha-therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C.