Association between HLA-DQB1 alleles and susceptibility to coronary artery disease in Southern Han Chinese.

Accumulated evidence indicates that polymorphisms in human leukocyte antigens (HLA) are associated with susceptibility to coronary artery disease (CAD). However, whether HLA-DQB1 alleles are correlated with susceptibility to CAD is unclear. In this study, significantly lower frequencies of the allele groups (DQB103:01:01G and DQB105:03:01G) and the genotypes (DQB103:01:01G/DQB103:01:01G and DQB103:01:01G/DQB105:03:01G) were observed in the CAD group compared with that in the controls. However, notably higher frequencies of DQB104:01:01G and genotype DQB105:01:01G/DQB103:01:01G were observed in the CAD patients than in the controls. Further analysis in subgroups showed that DQB103:01:01G was present at a significantly lower frequency in both female and male CAD patients compared with the corresponding controls; however, DQB104:01:01G was overtly high only in male CAD patients. CAD patients with diabetes showed a negative association with DQB103:01:01G and DQB105:03:01G and a positive association with DQB104:01:01G, DQB103:02:01G and DQB103:03:02G. Results of logistic regression analysis indicated that DQB103:01:01G and DQB105:03:01G were significantly associated with reduced susceptibility to CAD, but DQB104:01:01G, DQB103:02:01G and DQB103:03:02G had no correlation with CAD. Together, these findings indicate that CAD in Southern Han Chinese is negatively associated with HLA-DQB103:01:01G and DQB105:03:01G, and males with HLA-DQB104:01:01G are likely to have high risk for CAD.