Individuals with IgA deficiency and common variable immunodeficiency share polymorphisms of major histocompatibility complex class III genes.

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Abstract
IgA deficiency and common variable immunodeficiency are heritable disorders that can occur within the same family. Both immunodeficiencies are characterized by arrests in B-cell differentiation that vary in the extent of the immunoglobulin isotypes involved. A high frequency of major histocompatibility complex supratypes associated with a null allele of the gene encoding the C4A isotype of complement component C4 has been observed in IgA-deficient individuals. In search of a genetic linkage between the two immunodeficiencies, we examined the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class III genes encoding complement components C2, C4A, and C4B and steroid 21-hydroxylase in addition to the HLA serotypes in individuals with either common variable immunodeficiency or IgA deficiency. Twelve of 19 patients with common variable immunodeficiency (63%, P less than 0.001) and 9 of 16 patients with IgA deficiency (56%, P less than 0.01) had rare C2 alleles and/or C4A and 21-hydroxylase A deletions, whereas these gene features were seen in only 5 of 34 healthy individuals (15%) in the control group. Nine of 11 patients with C4A deletion had an HLA haplotype consistent with the MHC supratype HLA-A1, Cw7, B8, C4AQ0, C4B1, BfS, DR3 previously found to be associated with IgA deficiency. The data support the hypothesis that common variable immunodeficiency and IgA deficiency are related disorders, susceptibility to which is determined by a gene(s) within or near the MHC class III gene region on chromosome 6.

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