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Antigen-processing polymorphisms in chronic hepatitis C infection
T Höhler1, G Gerken, P M Schneider
1First Medical Department, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany.
Background:
Cytotoxic T cell (CTL) responses may influence the course of a hepatitis C infection. CTL recognize viral peptides on HLA class I molecules. Antigenic peptides for class I presentation are generated by proteasomes and transported into the endoplasmic reticulum by the TAP proteins. It is unknown whether polymorphisms of the antigen-processing genes might influence the development of chronic hepatitis C.
Methods:
75 patients with chronic hepatitis C and 99 unrelated controls were typed for TAP and LMP2 polymorphisms. Typing was done by allele-specific PCR techniques and PCR with subsequent single-stranded confirmation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis.
Results:
Apart from minor increases of the TAP2*0101 allele and LMP2 heterozygotes in the chronic hepatitis group there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest, that disease association for chronic hepatitis C does not extend beyond the HLA-DQ locus. Although TAP and LMP play an important role in the processing of viral antigens, their limited polymorphisms do not show any association with the development of chronic hepatitis C.