HLA-DRB1*1502 confers susceptibility to ulcerative colitis, but is negatively associated with its intractability: a...

Several studies have documented the high incidence of several HLA class II alleles in Japanese patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). Although the characteristics of the HLA system in Koreans are quite similar to those in the Japanese, it is not clear whether the HLA pattern in Korean UC is similar to that in Japanese UC. We investigated an association between HLA class II genes and UC patients and the clinical meaning of these genes in Korea.

Unrelated Korean patients with UC ( n=70) and ethnically matched unrelated controls ( n=182) were genotyped for HLA-DR by PCR followed by reverse hybridization using sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes. The clinical characteristics of the patients were analyzed with regard to anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) status and total colectomy for intractability.

HLA-DR2 and DRB1*1502 were found significantly more frequently in patients (42.9% and 21.4%) than controls (20.3% and 5.5%). DRB1*1502 was more frequent in p-ANCA-positive (5/23) than in p-ANCA-negative (1/11) patients. Total colectomy for intractability was performed more commonly in patients without DRB1*1502 (14/55) than in those with it (0/15).

Our data are consistent with those of Japanese studies in that DR2 and DRB1*1502 are positively associated with UC patients. In contrast to the Japanese study, however, our results demonstrates that DRB1*1502 is negatively associated with the risk of colectomy in Korean patients with UC.