The signature of hla class ii genes in sudanese patients with celiac disease

The objective of this study was to investigate the association of HLA Class-II loci and their frequencies in Sudanese patients with celiac disease. All blood specimens from celiac disease patients (n=70), and control group (n=30) were tested for (tTG IgA, Gliadin IgG and EMA) antibodies by IIF and ELISA. All tests were repeated on all patients (n=70) to check their response to the Gluten free diet (GFD). HLA-class II, DR and DQ alleles were typed from the DNA of all samples . Analysis of the gel was done by using One Lambda Software. Analysis of case-control data was performed using the Chi-square test with P< 0.05 considered significant. HLA-DRB1*0301 (HLA-DR17) was found in 74.3 % of the patients compared to 26.67% of the healthy controls (p= 0.002) with a risk factor of 4.4. The frequency of HLA-DQB1*0201 (HLA-DQ2) was found to be 81.42% and 53.3% in patients and in healthy controls respectively (p=0.006) with a risk factor of 3.8. HLA-DQB1*0301(HLA-DQ7) was found to be significantly frequent in patients (24.3%) compared to (3.3%) among the controls (p= 0.011) with a relative risk of 9.3. This in contrast to Caucasian patients where the frequency of HLA-DQB1*0301(HLA-DQ7) is only 2%. There was no significant difference between patients and controls regarding HLA-DQB1*0302 allele (HLA-DQ8) which was frequently seen in 17.14% patients compared to 30% in the controls (p=0.18) with a relative risk of 0.48. HLA-DQ7 is highly specific to Sudanese CD compared to HLA-DQ8.