Oligonucleotide dot-blot analysis of HLA-DQ beta alleles associated with multiple sclerosis

Oligonucleotide probes were used to investigate the role of DQ beta molecules in susceptibility to multiple sclerosis. Although shared amino acid and nucleotide sequences in DQ beta 1 have been suggested to be critical in disease development, we find that the distribution of sequences corresponding to residues 71-77 is not greater in patients versus controls.