Distribution of HLA-B*27 Subtypes in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis in Local Population

To compare the distribution of HLA-B*27 subtypes in healthy controls and in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients of different ethnic groups from Pakistan.

Descriptive study.

Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from April 2016 to October 2017.

Forty-nine HLA-B*27 positive, unrelated AS patients and 18 HLA-B*27 positive healthy BMT/renal transplant donors were selected for this study. Typing of the HLA-B27 alleles was performed by the polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific primer (PCR-SSP).

There was a wide number of HLA-B*27 subtypes and an elevated frequency of the B*2707 allele in the AS patients. The allele B*2706 seems to have a protective role in the population studied because it was found only in the healthy controls. HLA-B*27:03 and 07 were found predominant subtypes in Punjabis and Pathans, respectively.

There were no significant differences for the distribution of B*27 subtypes between patients and controls (p >0.05).