HLA phenotypes in children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and their gene carrier mothers.

Typing of HLA A, B and C locus antigens was carried out and the frequency distribution calculated in 32 hemizygous children affected by DMD, in 11 mothers who were either obligatory gene carriers or had increased CPK activity, and in 222 healthy blood donors. For typing peripheral blood lymphocytes and the standard NIH lymphocytotoxicity test were used. The HLA-B7 antigen had a tendency to be more frequent, being 31% in the group of hemizygous children with DMD as against 13.5% in the control group (p less than 0.04). In the gene carrier mothers the frequency of HLA-B7 was 36% (p less than 0.12). In the group of DMD hemizygotes the HLA-Aw24 antigen showed a tendency to higher frequency (p less than 0.05).