[HLA-B27 antigen and alkaptonuria].

Study of urinary homogentisic acid and a determinantion of group HLA were carried out for 36 members of a family spread over three generations with three cases of ochronotic rheumatism in the second generation. Alkaptonuria was discovered in seven other subjects, six of them members of the third generation: urinary elimination was poor, less than 0.60 g/24 hours. There is a certain degree of consanguinity in the family studied here and these findings do not therefore rule out a recessive autosomal transmission of the alkaptonuria. They do however lead to the consideration that alkaptonuria may sometimes be found in heterozygotic subjects. A genetic relationship between HLA complex and alkaptonuria can only be claimed with difficulty from this familial study, but the high frequency of B 27 antigen (29 out of 36 members carring it) leaves room for the hypothesis that the B 27 gene, or more precisely a gene associated with the B 27 gene, plays a part in the development of ochronotic rheumatism.