HLA class II and class I polymorphism in Venezuelan patients with myasthenia gravis

Oligotyping performed among ethnically mixed Venezuelan patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) and controls has revealed positive associations of HLA class I A*31, B*08, B*39, B*40, C*15, C*17, and class II DRB1*09 and negative associations of DQB1*06 and DQA1*02 with the disease. Sequential removal of human leukocyte antigen B (HLA-B) alleles when relative predispositional effects (RPEs) were looked for demonstrated that B*08 is the allele group with the largest contribution in the overall MG patients followed by B*39 and B*40. Several specificities (A*31, B*08, C*17, DRB1*03, DQA1*05, and DQB1*02) indicated increased frequencies among patients with thymic hyperplasia versus patients without hyperplasia or controls. Tests to identify alleles with the strongest association to MG in our patients detected DRB1*13 and B*38 as possible predisposing secondarily associated alleles in patients with hyperplasia. The associations observed disappear after Bonferoni correction of probability values and have been described in patients of Caucasian and/or Oriental ethnic background. Thus, our results reflect the heterogeneity of our population and of the patients tested and suggest a limited influence of several HLA genes in this heterogeneous disease or that these might be only markers of nearby non-HLA genes responsible for the susceptibility or resistance effect.