A Raised Incidence of HL-A2 plus HL-A9 and other Anomalies of the HL-A Antigens of Patients with Leukaemia

Abstract

In 54 patients with leukaemia a raised incidence of HL-A9 was noted as well as a markedly increased association between this antigen and HL-A2. This occurred most frequently in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia. As HL-A2 and HL-A9 are both antigens of the first series it has been suggested that the predisposition to develop leukaemia is controlled by a recessive gene closely linked to the first HL-A locus and in a linkage disequilibrium with HL-A2 and HL-A9. 5 patients also showed definite changes between antigens of the same series, whilst others suffered a partial or total loss in antigenicity. Lymphocytes from 145 controls did not behave in this way, though other patients receiving radiotherapy also ‘lost’ antigens. So it was postulated that such changes resulted from the treatment of the disease rather than the disease itself.

HLA System and Testicular Germinative Tumours

“…in M. Bekhterev an association to B27 is not proved by all examined members of the family having this illness [3,8,9,20], The same phenomenon has been observed in a family with ankylosing spondylitis and juvenile diabetes |26] and in a family with an incidence of sclerosis multiplex [14], (2) Racial variations in the association of the disease with an HLA system: the Japanese population shows a relationship of psoriasis vulgaris to A l, B12, B37 antigens, Caucasians to B13, B17, B37, likewise in the case of myasthenia gravis B 12 and Bw35 antigens occur red more frequently in the Japanese, whereas in Cau casians B8, etc. 115], (3) Accidentally demonstrated association of the disease to 2-3 HLA antigens of the same locus: B13 and B17 in psoriasis, B8, B15 and B18 in juvenile diabetes [6], Al and A9 in Wilms' tumour [16], A2 and A9 in leukaemia [10]. Further, the demonstrated association of the disease to HLA-A 1/B8, B8/Dw3, B7/Dw2 haplotype [6], (4) The association of a certain HLA antigen to some diseases of a quite different pathogenesis: e.g.…”