Association of HLA class I alleles with aloplecia areata in Chinese Hans.

BACKGROUND

Some studies suggested that human HLA status may potentiate development of the AA phenotype and exists ethic differences. No report has been published about HLA class I alleles associated with AA in Chinese Hans.

OBJECTIVE

To study the distribution of HLA class I alleles and haplotypes in Chinese Hans AA patients and the relation of HLA class I profile with age of onset, severity, duration of current attack, past history and family history.

METHODS

The polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific primer (PCR-SSP) method was used to analyze the distribution of HLA class I alleles in 192 patients with AA and 252 healthy controls in Chinese Hans.

RESULTS

The frequencies of HLA-A*02, -A*03, -B*18, -B*27, -B*52 and -Cw*0704 were significantly higher in patients than in controls. The A*2-B*18, A*2-B*27, A*2-B*52, A*2-Cw*0704, B*18-Cw*0704, B*27-Cw*0704, B*52-Cw*0704 were found as high-risk haplotypes in developing AA in this study. The HLA-A*02 and -A*03 were observed increased frequencies in patients less than 50% hair loss, and HLA-B*27 equally in patients of 50-99% hair loss, alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis. The frequencies of HLA-A*02 and -B*27 were significantly raised in recurrent patients, and ones of HLA-A*02, -A*03 and -B*27 similarly in patients without a positive family history.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrated the positive association of HLA class I alleles and haplotypes with AA. There may be differences in genetic background in patients with different age of onset, grade of scalp hair loss, duration of current attack, a past history and a family history.