HLA-A, B (Class I) and HLA-DR, DQ (Class II) Antigens in Turkish Patients with Recurrent Aphthous Ulceration and Behçet s Disease

Objective: The aims of the present study were to typify the human leukocyte antigen system (HLA)-A, B (class I) and HLA-DR, DQ (class II) antigens and to assess the frequency of the presence of these antigens in the Turkish population with recurrent aphthous ulceration (RAU) and Behçet s disease (BD) compared to healthy subjects. Subjects and Methods: Thirty patients with RAU, 30 with BD, and 15 healthy subjects were included in the study. HLA typing was performed by serology with commercial kits for HLA class I and II (One Lambda, Canoga Park, Calif., USA). Results: The HLA-A23 frequency was 26.7% in the RAU patients, which was significantly higher than the 3.3% frequency in the patients with BD (p 0.05). The HLA-A24 frequency was 33.3% in the RAU patient group, which was significantly higher (p 0.05) than the frequency in the healthy subjects (6.7%). Significantly higher frequencies (46.7%) of HLA-A30 were found in the healthy subjects compared to the BD (13.3%) and RAU (3.3%) patients (p 0.05 and p 0.01, respectively). A higher frequency of HLA-B13 was observed in the RAU (23.3%) patients compared to the BD (0%) patients (p 0.01). A decrease was observed in HLA-DR10 and HLA-DR17 in the RAU patients (p 0.05), while a higher frequency of HLA-DR10 was observed in the BD patients compared to the RAU patients (p 0.01). Conclusions: These results showed that RAU and BD were not in the same spectrum and the involvement of other genetic and/or environmental factors might be responsible for the development of these diseases and/or disease progression.