Association of HLA-DRB1, DQB1 alleles with chronic urticaria.

In order to investigate the association of genotypes of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 alleles with the genetic susceptibility of chronic urticaria (CU), genotypes of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 genes were detected by polymerase chain reactions with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) in 42 patients with CU (19 men and 23 women, mean age 30.67+/-12.45 y old as well as 193 racially matched healthy persons in ethnic Han from Hubei provinece. Gene frequencies of HLA-DRB1 * 12, * 0901 (RR=3.11, chi2=7. 579, P=0.006; RR= 2.47, chi2 =5.684, P=0.017) were significantly increased in CU patients as compared with that in healthy people. Gene frequencies of HLA-DQB1 * 05 (RR=0.26, chi2=6.683, P=0.01) were significantly decreased in CU patients. It was suggested that CU was found strongly associated with HLA-DRB1 * 12, * 0901 and HLA-DQB1 * 05, the former might be the genetic markers for susceptibility to CU, but the latter might play a resistive role.