HLA CLASS-II POLYMORPHISM AND IDDM SUSCEPTIBILITY IN THE GREEK POPULATION

The frequencies of HLA-DQA1, DQB1 and DRB1 alleles were compared between 50 Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Melitus (IDDM) patients and 49 healthy controls in the Greek population, Statistically significant difference in the frequencies of HLA-DQA1*0501-DQB1*0201 (p = 10(-4)), DQA1*0301-DQB1*0201 (P = 0.01) and DQA1*0301-DQB1*0302(P=0.001) were observed. The DRB1*0405-DQA1*0301-DQB1*0201 was the only DR, DQ combination significantly associated with the disease. The unexpected increase of DRB1*0405 observed in the Greek IDDM may suggest as reported in Chinese and Japanese IDDM a contribution of DRbeta and DQalpha in susceptibility. Moreover, in contrast to the Asians, in the Greek, the DRbeta, DQalpha are found with the usual DQbeta 57-ve.