Multiple sclerosis (MS) is prototype of
inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central
nervous system .The etiology of MS remains unclear,
but according to current data the disease develops in
genetically susceptible individuals and may require
additional environmental triggers. The human leukocyte
antigen (HLA) class II alleles (DRB1*1501,
DQA1*0102, DQB1*0602) may have the strongest
genetic effect in MS. In this study, the role of these
alleles were investigated in 183 Iranian patients
with multiple sclerosis and compared with 100
healthy individuals. HLA typing for DRB1*1501,
DQA1*0102, DQB1*0602 was performed by polymerase
chain reaction (PCR) amplification with
sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) method. The
results show that, HLA DR B1*1501 was significantly
more frequent among MS patients (46% vs. 20%,
PV = 0.0006) but DQA1*0102 haplotype was negatively
associated with MS (30% vs. 50%, PV =
0.0049) and no significant association was found with
DQB1*0602 and MS patients in comparison with
control group (24% and 30%, PV = 0.43). No significant
correlation was observed among these alleles
with sex, type of disease; initial symptoms, expanded
disability status scale (EDSS), as well as age at onset
and familial MS. This study therefore indicates that
there is no association of above HLA haplotypes with
clinical presentation, disease duration, and disability in
Iranian patients with MS which is in line with other
previous studies in different ethnic groups.
