HLA class II-associated genetic susceptibility in idiopathic progressive sensorineural hearing loss

To investigate the association between genes in the major histocompatibility complex and inner ear disease susceptibility at the DNA level, high-resolution genotyping for HLA class II (HLA-DR, -DQ, -DP) was performed by polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific oligonucleotide reverse dot blot and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis in 34 patients with idiopathic progressive sensorineural hearing loss (PSHL) and in 214 controls. The frequencies of DRB1*0301, DRB3*0101, DQB1*0201, and DPB1*0401 were significantly increased in patients with idiopathic PSHL compared with controls. The DQB1*0301 allele was significantly decreased in the patients. A linkage disequilibrium was probably responsible for the concomitant increase of both DRB1*0301 and DRB3*0101 alleles in patients. The increase of DQB1*0201 in patients was associated with the DRB1*0301 allele. In addition, the telomeric DPB1*0401 allele may act as an independent risk factor. The DQB1*0301 allele may have a protective role in the pathogenesis of idiopathic PSHL. These results suggest that the specific HLA class II gene products may confer susceptibility or resistance to idiopathic PSHL.