Daniela Kantárová, Mojmír Vrlík, Marián Mokáň, Martina Stuchlíková, Milan Buc
Type 1 diabetes mellitus, similarly to other autoimmune disorders, is genetically determined. Out of many genes involved, the most important represent those of the major histocompatibility complex in man - HLA. Since many years associations between DM1A and alleles of the loci HLA-B, -DRB1, and DQB1, respectively, have been known. However, less information is available on associations with alleles of HLA-DPB1 locus. In our present study, we have investigated 79 pediatric diabetic patients 1 - 19 years old in which HLA-DP alleles were determined; altogether 20 alleles were typed for. DPB1*0101 was found to be present more frequently in patients compared to healthy population (10.12% versus 2.22%; P = 0.0002, Pc = 0.004). On the contrary, occurrence rate of DPB1*0402 was decreased and represents a protective allele (8.23 % versus 22.22 %; P = 0.0031, Pc = 0.062). No other significant deviations in other HLA-DP allele frequencies were observed. As no breakthrough associations between DM 1A and HLA-DP alleles were found in our study, similar to the reports in the literature, it suggests that HLA-DP alleles will probably not substantially contribute to a genetic predisposition of the disease.