From the Departments of Internal Medicine and Immunogenetics, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran
Abstract: (4382 Views)
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a nonspecific acute and chronic inflammatory bowel
disease that diffusely involves the colonic mucosa. The etiology of UC has not yet
been elucidated fully. However, many studies have found that immunologic disorders
may play a role in the pathogenesis of UC. In addition, due to an increased
frequency of UC in families, especially an increased monozygotic compared with
dizygotic twin concordance, many implicate genetic factors in the development
and regulation of the immune responses, such as the HLA class II genes, as candidates
for conferring the genetic susceptibility. We studied the distribution of HLADR
and DQ antigens and duration of sickness in 42 Iranian patients suffering
from DC using the standard microlymphocytotoxicity technique. The phenotypic
frequencies ofHLA-DR2 were present in 24 of 84 controls and 18 of 42 patients
(p= 0.24, corrected p, not significant). The present study reveals no association
between HLA class II antigens and UC, suggesting that the HLA-DR2 is not a
predominant susceptibility gene for UC in the population studied.