Hansenologia Internationalis (Jun 2010)
Identification of HLA-DQB1*01 alleles in mitsuda negative leprosy patients
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the gene encoding HLA-DQ1 involved in the absence of cellular immune response in 60 Mitsuda negative leprosy patients (50LL and 10BL). The results showed the presence of HLA-DQB1*0501 in 48.30% of patients, followed by HLA-DQB1*0602 in 31.66%, both subtypes of the phenotype HLA-DQB1*01. Despite the prevalence of these alleles, we can not say that they are responsible for the lack of response to the Mitsuda antigen. We suggest further studies to confirm the results.