Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2015 | Research article
Association of HLA-B*41:02 with Henoch-Schönlein Purpura (IgA Vasculitis) in Spanish individuals irrespective of the HLA-DRB1 status
Authors:
Raquel López-Mejías, Fernanda Genre, Belén Sevilla Pérez, Santos Castañeda, Norberto Ortego-Centeno, Javier Llorca, Begoña Ubilla, Sara Remuzgo-Martínez, Verónica Mijares, Trinitario Pina, Vanesa Calvo-Río, Ana Márquez, José A Miranda-Filloy, Antonio Navas Parejo, Marta Conde-Jaldón, Lourdes Ortiz-Fernández, Diego Argila, Maximiliano Aragües, Esteban Rubio, Manuel León Luque, Juan María Blanco-Madrigal, Eva Galíndez-Aguirregoikoa, Francisca González Escribano, J Gonzalo Ocejo-Vinyals, Javier Martín, Ricardo Blanco, Miguel A González-Gay
Published in:
Arthritis Research & Therapy
|
Issue 1/2015
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Abstract
Introduction
A study was conducted to determine whether the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) B alleles are implicated in the susceptibility to Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) in the largest series of Caucasian HSP patients ever assessed for genetic studies.
Methods
The study population was composed of 349 Spanish patients diagnosed with HSP fulfilling the American College of Rheumatology and the Michel et al. classification criteria, and 335 sex and ethnically matched controls. HLA-B phenotypes were determined by sequencing-based typing (SBT) and analyzed by chi-square or Fisher exact test.
Results
A statistically significant increase of HLA-B*41:02 allele in HSP patients when compared with controls was found (8.3% versus 1.5% respectively; P = 0.0001; OR (odds ratio) =5.76 [2.15-19.3]). These results remained statistically significant after adjusting for Bonferroni correction (P = 0.0028). An internal validation also confirmed the susceptibility effect on HSP associated with HLA-B*41:02 (OR = 5.70 [1.98-16.44]). Since a former study described an association between HLA-DRB1*01:03 and HSP susceptibility, we also evaluated the implication of HLA-B*41:02 independently of HLA-DRB1*01:03. Interestingly, the association remained statistically significant (P = 0.0004, OR = 4.97 [1.8-16.9]). No HLA-B association with specific HSP clinical features was found.
Conclusions
Our study indicates that HLA-B*41:02 is associated with the susceptibility to HSP in Spanish patients irrespective of HLA-DRB1 status.