Evaluation of HLA class I & II frequency in MS patients from Khuzeatan province

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that resultsfrom the interaction between both genetic and environmental factors. Several genes have been identified to beinvolved in MS susceptibility such as MHC genes, including HLA . The term HLA refers to the HumanLeucocyte Antigen System, which is controlled by genes on the short arm of chromosome 6. There are twoclasses of HLA antigens, termed accordingly, HLA Class I (HLA-A, -B & -C) and Class II(HLA-DP, -DQ & -DR). the HLA gene variants are associated with some autoimmune disease. Our aim was to study the frequencyof this haplotypes in MS patients from Khuzeatan province.Methods: In this case-control study, the association of HLA alleles was investigated in 200 multiple sclerosispatients from Khuzestan province (168 female and 32 male), with female-male ratio about 4:1. HLA-typing wasperformed by polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP).Results: we find that some haplotype of HLA have high frequency in MS patients such as HLA-A3(46.5 %),HLA-DQA1(55%), HLA-DQB1(61.5%)& HLA-DRB1(41.5%); while HLA-A2 have low frequency(29.5%).Conclusion: confirmed other studies, HLA-A3, HLA-DQA1, HLA-DQB1, HLA-DRB1 allele can increase therisk of MS in khuzestan population, and HLA-A2 allele probably have protection function and can reduce therisk of MS. We think that HLA haplotypes can use as a primary marker for distinguish of MS. Of course, moreinvestigations on other HLA haplotypes and larger population are need to find the useful biomarker to help us fordistinguish the MS susceptibility.

Keywords:

Multiple sclerosis , Genes , MHC , HLA-typing