Study on HLA system in IgA nephropathy

Forty Japanese patients with IgA nephropathy were typed for HLA-A and HLA-B using local antisera. Thirty-seven of these patients were typed for HLA-D using homozygous cells "En", now known to be strongly related to DRw6. Forty-six patients with chronic hemodialysis were used as patient controls for renal disease and 115 healthy individuals were used as normal controls. The frequency of HLA-DEn was significantly increased in 17 out of 37 patients with IgA nephropathy, (46%) (normal controls 18.3%) (P less than 0.0007). Although the occurrence of HLA-B12 was high, it was not significant, i.e. 11 out of 40 (27.5%). These results suggest that some abnormality in the genes of patients with IgA nephropathy is more closely associated with the HLA-D region than the HLA-A or B regions.