HLA‐DR polymorphism influences T‐cell precursor frequencies to Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) gp110: implications for the association of HLA‐DR antigens with rheumatoid arthritis

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Abstract
To study whether HLA‐DR haplotypes associated with susceptibility to develop rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may influence T‐cell responses to the Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) gp110 (a protein of the late replicative cycle of EBV), we evaluated the frequency in peripheral blood of T cells capable to proliferate to EBV gp110 by direct limiting dilution analysis in 50 HLA‐DR‐typed healthy subjects. We found that HLA‐DRB1*07, an allele associated with reduced risk to develop RA, is associated with the highest frequencies of T cells specific for gp110 in peripheral blood. In contrast, HLA‐DRB1*0404, one of the susceptibility alleles is associated with the lowest frequencies of gp110 specific T cells. Finally, people expressing both HLA‐DRB1*07 and HLA‐DRB1*0404 display low precursor frequencies to EBV gp110.

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