Association of HLA-DRB alleles and pulmonary tuberculosis in North Chinese patients

• Published in: Genetics and molecular research Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 1331 - 1246
• Main Authors: Shi, G L, Hu, X L, Yang, L, Rong, C L, Guo, Y L, Song, C X
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brazil 01.01.2011
• Subjects: Adult; Base Sequence; China; Female; Gene Frequency; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genotype; HLA-DR Antigens - genetics; HLA-DRB1 Chains; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Molecular Sequence Data; Polymorphism, Genetic; Promoter Regions, Genetic; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary - genetics; Young Adult; China
• ISSN: 1676-5680; 1676-5680
• DOI: 10.4238/vol10-3gmr1132

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) plays a central role in the regulation of the immune response. HLA class II molecules are essential for T cell-mediated adaptive immunity and present peptide antigens to CD4(+) T cells. Because of its important role in the immune response and its high degree of polymorphism, the HLA system is associated with many diseases. We examined the polymorphisms of HLA-DRB alleles and the sequences of the HLA-DRB promoter region in 97 unrelated patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and in 62 unrelated normal controls of the Han nationality from North China, using PCR with sequence-specific primers and PCR direct sequencing. We found that the frequency of HLA-DRB1*15 was significantly higher in the pulmonary tuberculosis group than in the healthy control group. The P value was 0.001, and the odds ratio was 3.793. The pulmonary tuberculosis group had the same HLA-DRB1 promoter region sequences as the control group. We concluded that the HLA-DRB1*15 allele is associated with pulmonary tuberculosis in the Han nationality from North China. The HLA-DRB1 promoter region sequences had no association with the development of pulmonary tuberculosis.