[HLA antigens in cleft lip-palate patients]

HLA typing of 50 patients with cleft lip and/or cleft palate (50 HLA-ABC and 35 HLA-DR tests) and, in part, also of their families showed an increased frequency of the antigens HLA-AII, DRw6 and the haplotype HLA-A11, B35 as against the normal population. Disorders of wound healing were observed more frequently in patients with HLA antigens A11 and B15 than in those without these antigens. Based on these hints of an HLA association (p values after correction are not significant), and the frequent coincidence of HLA-DR antigen in the patients' parents, as well as the increased rate of HLA-DR homozygosity of the patients, it is assumed that genetic factors of the HLA complex or an HLA-linked complex play a part in the etiology of clefts of the lip and cleft palate.