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
Date
2004Author
Varnavidou-Nicolaidou, AgathiKarpasitou, Katerina
Georgiou, Dora
Stylianou, Galatia
Kokkofitou, Avgousta
Christodoulides, Michalis
Constantinou, Constantina
Gregoriadou, Christiana
Kyriakides, George K.
Source
Human immunologyVolume
65Issue
12Pages
1451-1454Google Scholar check
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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. © American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, 2004. Published by Elsevier Inc.