STUDY OF HL-A SYSTEM IN BASEDOWS DISEASE

  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 37  (2) , 111-112
Abstract
HL-A typing was carried out in 100 Caucasians with Graves'' disease and compared with 270 healthy controls. HL-A antigens (25) were characterized using a lymphocytotoxicity microtechnique. There was an increased incidence of HL-A8 antigen (35% in patients as compared to 16.3% in controls), with a high degree of statistical significance (P = 0.0002 and corrected P .times. 25 = 0.005). A clearcut correlation between the presence of HL-A8 and different characteristics of the disease, i.e., sex, age of onset, familial history, exophtalmia, goiter and severity was not observed. The knowledge of the relationship between the HL-A8 gene and several autoimmune diseases is a strong argument in favor of the autoimmune nature of Graves'' disease. The association between HL-A8 and Graves'' disease could be explained by a close linkage between the second HL-A locus and 1 or several Ir [immune response]-IgG [immunoglobulin G] loci occupied in predisposed individuals by predisposing alleles. In these subjects, an antigenic contact with an exogenous etiological agent would induce a pathological immune reesponse, with production of thyroid stimulating IgG.

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