Subtypes of HLA-DRB1*03, *08, *11, *12, *13 and *14 in early onset pauciarticular juvenile chronic arthritis (EOPA) with and without iridocyclitis.

A set of 200 patients with early onset pauciarticular juvenile chronic arthritis (EOPA-JCA) from Munich (165) and Prague (35) was investigated for the subtypes of HLA-DRB1*03, *08, 11, 12, 13 and 14. In addition, the relationship of DRB1, DQA1, DQB1 and DPB1 alleles with iridocyclitis in patients with EOPA-JCA was investigated. Subtyping for DRB103 was not informative, as all DR3 positive patients and all except one of the controls possessed DRB10301. Thus, the role of DRB10302 could not be assessed. The subtypes for DRB112, 13, and 14 did not reveal any statistically significant difference between patients and controls. In contrast, the subtype DRB11104 was the one most strongly associated with EOPA-JCA (chi 2 31.2, p value < 10(-6)). It appears that the subtype DRB11103 may also be associated with EOPA-JCA. The association of EOPA-JCA with DR8 is almost exclusively due to the subtype *0801. For the other alleles *0802, 0803, and 0804 there is no evidence for or against involvement in JCA. The analysis of iridocyclitis in EOPA-JCA revealed that DRB11104 is not more frequent in patients with eye disease than in patients without eye disease. The presence of DRB101 appears to convey some protective effect against the occurrence of iridiocylitis in EOPA-JCA, as had been previously observed by Melin-Aldana et al.