HLA--Dw3 in Sjögren's syndrome

The increased frequency of HLA-B8 in Sjögren's syndrome was recently reported independently by Gershwin et al. (1975) and Iványi et al. (1976). The association of HLA-B8 antigen with other diseases, characterized generally by impaired immunologic reactivity, has been shown (see Svejgaard et al. 1975, Dausset & Hors 1975), and in some of these diseases MLC typing has revealed the strong association also with the Dw3 determinant. The degree of association with each of the two, B8 and Dw3, varied between different diseases, in some of them having been reported to be higher for antigen B8 (Möller et al. 1976) and in the others for the determinant Dw3 (Thomsen et al. 1975, 1976). In some of the diseases, the association was found to be equally strong for both determinants (Solheim et al. 1976, Thorsby et al. 1975). In this communication, we describe the typing of HLA-Dw3 in 29 patients with Sjögren's syndrome (Ss). They represent part of the experimental group reported in a previous study (Iványi et al. 1976).