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Updated: Sep 18, 2026
Overlapping Peptide Library to Map Qa-1 Epitopes in a Protein
Published on: December 20, 2017
HLA-DQA1 is not an apparent risk factor for microchimerism in patients with various autoimmune diseases and in
Carol M Artlett1, Terrence P O'Hanlon, Ana M Lopez
1Division of Rheumatology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107, USA. Carol.Artlet@mail.tju.edu
Objective:
Microchimeric cells have been identified in lesions and peripheral blood of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM), and HLA-DQA1*0501 is a risk factor for these diseases in some populations. Furthermore, DQA1*0501 has been associated with T lymphocyte microchimerism in SSc. To better define the strength of this association, we assessed the relationship among DQA1 alleles and microchimerism.
Methods:
DNA from whole peripheral blood or magnetically sorted T cells was tested for microchimeric cells by polymerase chain reaction of the Y chromosome or of HLA-Cw in 87 SSc patients, 28 juvenile IIM patients, and 88 healthy controls. Thirty-seven mother-son pairs were also analyzed for microchimerism and DQA1*0501.
Results:
We were unable to demonstrate that DQA1*0501 is associated with microchimerism in T lymphocytes or in whole peripheral blood DNA in patients with SSc or juvenile IIM or in healthy individuals. In the 37 mother-son pairs, we were unable to demonstrate an association of DQA1*0501 with microchimerism in peripheral blood DNA or T lymphocytes, and compatibility between the donor's and recipient's HLA alleles did not influence microchimerism in the recipient.
Conclusion:
These data suggest that HLA-DQA1 alleles do not appear to play a role in the persistence of microchimerism in the peripheral blood or T lymphocytes of patients with selected autoimmune diseases or in healthy individuals.
