HLA typing in women with breast implants

Since the 1970s, anecdotal reports have described a relatively small number of women who received silicone gel breast implants and later developed either a recognized rheumatologic disease or unexplained symptoms suggestive of an autoimmune disorder. The study reported here examined whether there is any association between the symptoms seen in implant patients and HLA molecules. One-hundred and ninety-nine subjects were evaluated by HLA typing: symptomatic patients with implants (group I, n = 77), asymptomatic women with implants (group II, n = 37), healthy female volunteers without implants (group III, n = 54), and fibromyalgia patients without implants (group IV, n = 31). A statistically significant 68 percent of group I were positive for HLA-DR53, compared with 35 percent of group II and 52 percent of group III. The fibromyalgia patients were strikingly similar to group I women in terms of HLA-DR molecules, with 65 percent of group IV being positive for DR53. Group I also had a statistically significant increased frequency of HLA-DQ2. Asymptomatic women with implants (group II) had an increased frequency of DR1 and DQ1. In addition, 42 percent of symptomatic patients with implants formed autoantibodies to their own B cells; of these, 81 percent were DR53-positive. Although frequencies of capsular contracture and implant rupture were not significantly different in the two groups with implants, there were statistically significant associations in group I between contractures and ruptures and the presence of DR53 and B-cell autoantibodies. These data suggest that symptomatic patients with implants share important genetic characteristics (primarily HLA-DR53 positivity) that differentiate them from their asymptomatic counterparts. DR53 may be a marker of women who are predisposed by their HLA genotype to develop symptoms following exposure to silicone gel breast implants.