Genetics of HLA‐associated disease; rheumatoid arthritis

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Abstract
An association between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the HLA antigen DR4 supports the view that genes in the HLA region are important in susceptibility to this disease. To further define the basis for genetic susceptibility to RA, HLA haplotype sharing was analyzed among affected and unaffected individuals in 29 multiple-case families with definite or classic RA. A non-random distribution of HLA haplotypes to unaffected as compared with affected offspring was observed in sibships containing 2 or more affected individuals having 3 of 4 parental haplotypes. Susceptibility to RA is apparently determined, at least in part, by genes in the HLA region of chromosome 6.