HLA-B27 in the Greek Cypriot population: Distribution of subtypes in patients with ankylosing spondylitis and other HLA-B27-related diseases. The possible protective role of B*2707

Agathi Varnavidou-Nicolaidou, Katerina Karpasitou, Dora Georgiou, Galatia Stylianou, Avgousta Kokkofitou, Christodoulides Michalis, Constantinou Constantina, Christiana Gregoriadou, George Kyriakides

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The major purpose of the present study was to investigate the frequency of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B27 alleles in healthy controls and in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and other HLA-B27-related diseases in the Greek Cypriot population. We selected 102 HLA-B27-positive individuals (60 controls and 42 patients). Typing of the HLA-B27 alleles was performed by polymerase chain reaction amplification with sequence-specific primers. Only two alleles were detected in the patient group: B*2702 (n = 31, 73.8%) and B*2705 (n = 11, 26.2%). The HLA-B*2707 allele was detected (n = 10, 16.7%) only in the healthy controls in addition to the B*2702 (n = 31, 51.7%) and B*2705 (n = 19, 31.7%) alleles. Our results show a restricted number of HLA-B27 subtypes associated with AS and other B27-related diseases and an elevated frequency of the B*2702 allele in the AS patients. The allele B*2707 seems to have a protective role in the population studied because it was found only in the healthy controls.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1451-1454
Number of pages4
JournalHuman Immunology
Volume65
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2004

Keywords

  • ankylosing spondylitis
  • HLA-B27 subtypes
  • protective allele

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