Human leukocyte antigen allele associations in type-1 autoimmune hepatitis patients from western India

The immunogenetic basis of autoimmune diseases has become more and more evident. We have analyzed the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) associations with type-1 autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) among patients from western India.

In 20 patients and 120 healthy controls, polymerase chain reaction amplified with sequence specific primers and hybridized with oligoprobes was carried out to elucidate the HLA A, B, C and DRB1 allele associations.

The study revealed that A*0222 (20% vs 1.66%; P = 0.0001), A*3201 (15% vs 0.83%; P = 0.0004), A*680102 (30% vs 6.66%; P = 0.001), B*35 (40% vs 11.66%; P = 0.001), B*5501 (10% vs 0.83%; P = 0.008), Cw*0102 (15% vs 1.66%; P = 0.002) and Cw*070101 (50% vs 11.66%; P = 2.5E-05) were significantly increased among the A, B and C alleles of AIH patients. Among the HLA DRB1 alleles, DRB1*0301 (20% vs 6.19%; P = 0.03), DRB1*1301 (15% vs 2.65%; P = 0.01), DRB1*14 (30% vs 11.5%; P = 0.02) and DRB1*1501 (40% vs 22.12%; P = 0.08) were increased in AIH patients when compared with the controls.

The present study indicates that the HLA susceptibility to type 1 AIH in the different populations studied is complex.