Polymorphic Analysis of the Human MHC‐Linked Heat Shock Protein 70 (HSP70‐2) and HSP70‐Hom Genes in Insulin‐Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM)

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Abstract
In the present study we characterized the frequencies of two polymorphisms within the MHC-linked heat shock protein (HSP) 70 genes in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) (n= 114) and healthy control individuals (n = 110). Significant differences in genotype and allelic frequencies were observed for both polymorphisms between randomly selected patients and controls. However, for the HSP70-2 polymorphisms this was solely due to linkage disequilibrium with DR3. The rare HSP70-Hom 2-allele was significantly more frequent in controls than in patients. It showed strong association with certain tumour necrosis factor (TNF) (class III) and HLA-B and -A (class I) alleles independent of HLA-DQ and -DR alleles. By typing 257 individuals from 55 IDDM multiple-case families two extended MHC-haplotypes, including class II-, TNF- and class I-markers, carrying the rare HSP70-Hom allele were defined. One was only transmitted to diabetic offspring, whereas the other was only transmitted to unaffected offspring. The functional implication of the polymorphism in the heat shock-inducible HSP70-2 gene was analysed by studying HSP70-2 mRNA expression after heat shock in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from individuals with different HSP70-2 genotypes. Preliminary data showed that individuals homozygous for the PstI 8.5-kb allele consistently had slightly lower expression than heterozygous and 9·0-kb homozygous individuals.

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