HLA-B27 frequency and MLC reactions in acute anterior uveitis

HLA-A and B antigens were determined in 37 unrelated patients with acute non-granulomatous anterior uveitis (AAU) and in 114 control subjects. HLA-B27 was identified in 31 patients with AAU (83.8%) and in 15 control subjects (13.2%). Fifteen patients (40.5%) had associated rheumatic diseases and all of them (100%) had HLA-B27. Of the 22 patients without any associated disease, 16 (72.7%) had HLA-B277. To study the HLA-D composition MLC tests were done as one-way microcultures between members of four groups consisting of 10, 10, 8, 8 patients with AAU and two or three healthy controls in each test group. No difference between patient-to-patient reactions as compared with the control reactions could be observed. The results show that AAU is very closely associated with HLA-B27 but not with any of the HLA-D antigens.