Studies on the HLA-DRB1 genotypes in Japanese women with severe pre-eclampsia positive and negative for anticardiolipin antibody using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method.

The human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR genotype was determined in 54 Japanese women with severe pre-eclampsia in order to elucidate the relationship between HLA-DR antigen systems and pre-eclampsia. The patients were divided into two groups according to positivity for the anticardiolipin antibody (ACA), i.e. one patient group negative for ACA (n = 41) and the other patient group positive for ACA (n = 13). The frequency of each HLA-DRB1 allele in both groups was compared with that in 81 normally fertile Japanese women who had not experienced pre-eclampsia. The genotypes of HLA-DR antigens were determined using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. The frequency of DRB1*04 and DRB1*0403 in the patient group positive for the ACA was significantly higher compared with that in the group of normal fertile women (P< 0.05). The frequency of each HLA-DRB1 allele was not significantly different between patient group with pre-eclampsia negative for ACA and group of normal fertile women. These results suggest a difference in the immunogenetic background between the patient groups with severe pre-eclampsia positive and negative for the ACA.