Association of class I HLA antigens with the clinical manifestations of Turkish patients with Behçet's disease

Abstract

Genetic factors appear to be important in the pathogenesis of Behçet's disease. Although it is known to be strongly associated with HLA-B 51, the association of HLA class I antigens with specific clinical findings of the disease has not been studied extensively and the few studies are conflicting. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of HLA class I alleles with the manifestations of Behçet's disease in Turkish patients. Eighty-five patients with Behçet's disease were typed for HLA-A, B, and C antigens with the serologic, standard microlymphocytotoxicity technique. Possible associations of the HLA complex with clinical findings of Behçet's disease were examined. Statistically significant findings are as follows (P < 0.05): increased HLA-B 51 and decreased HLA-B35 frequency in patients with thrombophlebitis, increased HLA-A29 and decreased HLA-Bw6 frequency in patients with ocular involvement, decreased HLA-Cw2 frequency in patients with erythema nodosum, and decreased HLA-Cw 7 frequency in patients with genital ulceration. Of particular note, the results of this study suggest that the presence of HLA-B 51 and the absence of HLA-B35 can be regarded as laboratory risk factors of venous thrombosis in patients with Behçet's disease.

Class I and class II MHC polymorphisms in Mexican patients with Behçet’s disease

“…Members of this group share the amino acid alanine at position 26, which contributes to the structure of peptide-binding pocket B and determines the motif of bound peptides [16]. In this study, we found three HLA-B alleles different from others studies in which the HLA-B * 51 allele has been associated consistently in Turkish, Korean, Greek, Japanese, Israel Arabs, Iranian, Italian, and Moroccan patients [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. These alleles, in Mexicans, might be the equivalent of HLA-B51 found in the above mentioned populations.…”

HLA-B51 subtypes in Turkish patients with Behçet's disease and their correlation with clinical manifestations

“…Although the pathogenesis is not exactly known, it is believed to be triggered by microbial or environmental factors, with a genetic predisposition. In many ethnic groups that settled along the ancient Silk Road, a significant relationship is detected between BD and HLA-B51positivity (Kaya et al, 2002;Kötter et al, 2004;de Menthon et al, 2009;Song and Kang, 2012;Hughes et al, 2013;Houman et al, 2013).…”

Insights into Behçet’s disease

“…In Chinese Han patients, B 5101 dominated, and a new as sociation between BD and HLA-B 46 was found. Remarkably, in Turkish, Jordanian, Iranian and Japanese BD patients, the whole nucleotide sequences of HLA-B 510101 genes, with the promoter and intron regions, are identical, proposing that B 510101 may have the same phylogenetic source [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”