Increased frequency of HLA‐DPw2 in pauciarticular onset juvenile chronic arthritis

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Abstract
Thirty‐six unrelated Danish patients with pauciarticular Juvenile Chronic Arthritis (PJCA) and 120 controls were typed for HLA‐DPw1‐w6 and the local specificity CDPHEI with bulk‐expanded Primed Lymphocyte Typing (PLT) cells. The frequency of HLA‐DPw2 was 52.8% in PJCA patients and 16.7% in controls (relative risk, RR = 4.5; P < 0.001). The antigens HLA‐Dw5 and/or Dw8 were present in 50% of the patients and in 21.3% of the controls (RR = 4.2; p < 10‐3). DPw2 was not associated (in linkage disequilibrium) with Dw5/w8 in patients or in controls, and the DP and D associations with PJAC were independent of each other. However, the combined presence of DPw2 and Dw5 and/or Dw8 gave a significantly higher risk of PJCA than each antigen alone indicating interaction of DP and DR gene products. PJCA is the first disease definitely found to be associated with a DP antigen.