Histocompatibility Antigens and Humoral Immunity to Epstein‐Barr Virus

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Abstract
To explore possible genetic determinants of immunity to Epstein-Barr (EB) virus infection, prevalence rates and geometric mean titers (GMT) of antibody against EB viral capsid antigen (VCA) were measured in 422 adults of known HLA and ABO histocompatibility types. Deviation from the overall prevalence (87%) of anti-VCA titers .gtoreq. 10 was limited to subjects with HLA-A10 (95%) and those with a blank HLA-A locus (78%). The latter deviation was largely accounted for by the 13 subjects of HLA-A1/blank constitution (46%). Deviations from the overall mean anti-VCA titer (GMT 131.5) were found in seropositive subjects with blood group O (GMT 153.3) and tissue antigens HLA-A3 (GMT 150.8), HLA-B7 (GMT 152.1), HLA-Bw15 (GMT 97.0) and HLA-B27 (GMT 86.4). Separate reanalysis of the data for male and female subjects verified the association of blood group O with elevated and HLA-B27 with reduced mean levels of anti-VCA antibody.