Class II MHC alleles in rheumatoid arthritis in Tamilnadu, India: is there an association?

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was reported to be associated with class II MHC alleles in different ethnic populations. A similar study was undertaken to determine the association of class II MHC with RA patients of Tamilnadu (Tamil-speaking Hindus), India. Thirty patients with RA and 39 healthy controls were included. Polymorphic second exons of the DRB1, DQA1, and DQB1 genes were amplified and subjected to SSOP typing. No allele was found to be significantly associated with RA. However DRB1*11 (P = 0.01) and DQB1*0302 (P = 0.02) were significantly associated with rheumatoid factor-positive RA patients. (All the DRB1*11-positive RA patients had either *04 or *10 allele as their second allele. This study is first of its kind in this population.