Multiple sclerosis and high incidence of a B lymphocyte antigen.

Multiple sclerosis patients were tested for six new antigens present on human B lymphocytes. The group 4 specificity occurred in 83.9% of the 56 patients as compared to 32.5 percent in 72 healthy controls (P less than .003). The antiserums defining the five other B lymphocyte specificities reacted at a lower frequency to B cells from multiple sclerosis patients, showing that increased reactivity to group 4 antiserum was specific. Linkage of a hypothesized multiple sclerosis susceptibility gene with certain haplotypes of HLA-A3, HLA-B7 HLA-DW2, and the new B group 4 can be inferred.