HLA antigens in multiple sclerosis

HLA-A, B, C and DR were determined in 23 unrelated multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in order to investigate association between HLA antigens and the disease and identify genetic marker(s) of MS. As control, healthy donors were used (406 for HLA-DR locus and 621 for HLA-A,B,C loci). We foud that 2 HLA antigens were more frequent in MS patients. One of them was HLA-B7 for which P values was 0.003, relative risk (R.R) was 4,733 and etiologic fraction was 0.240. DR2 also showed a positive association with MS since its frequency was significantly increased in patients with a P values of 0.005 and R.R. of 3.349. The corresponding value of etiologic fraction confirmed this association (E.F.=0.335).