HLA-DQB1*05 ASSOCIATION WITH HASHIMOTO THYROIDITIS IN CHILDREN OF NORTHERN GREEK ORIGIN

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT), an organ-specific autoimmune disorder of the thyroid gland, is considered to be associated with the major histocompatibility complex. Association studies of human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) with HT concern adults and have not revealed consistent results. OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 gene polymorphisms in Greek children and adolescents with HT. METHODS: We analyzed the distribution of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 alleles in 17 Greek children and adolescents with HT and in 181 randomly chosen healthy subjects from northern Greece. The typing of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 genes was performed by using polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers. Differences of frequencies for HLA alleles were tested by the χ2 test. RESULTS: There was no significant association detected between HT and HLA-DRB1 or HLA-DQB1 alleles. However, HLA-DRB1*16 was slightly significantly increased in patients with HT (41.2%) compared with that in controls (19.3%) (P = .057; relative risk: 2.92), and HLA-DQB1*05 was significantly increased in patients with an age of diagnosis of >10 years (87.5%) as compared with those with an age of diagnosis of ≤10 years (33.3%) (P = .05; relative risk: 14). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to examine children and adolescents from northern Greece with HT and analyze the distribution of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 alleles according to the age of onset of HT. However, this study needs to include a greater number of patients to ascertain the possibility of an association and avoid the result of a chance event or random variation.