J Korean Med Sci.  2007 Dec;22(6):973-980. 10.3346/jkms.2007.22.6.973.

Meta-analysis of the Association between HLA-DRB1 Allele and Rheumatoid Arthritis Susceptibility in Asian Populations

• Jun KR
• Choi SE
• Cha CH
• Oh HB
• Heo YS
• Ahn HY
• Lee KJ

• KMID: 1785756
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2007.22.6.973

Abstract

The aims of this study were to summarize results on the association of HLA-DRB1 with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Asians and to determine if the shared epitope (SE) hypothesis could explain the meta-analysis results. Among the papers published between January 1987 and July 2006 on RA susceptibility in Asian-Mongoloid populations (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Thai), 12 were selected for the metaanalysis. Mongoloid-Asian patients with RA had significantly higher frequencies of HLA-DRB1*0101, *0401, *0410, and *1001 than controls (OR 1.5-2.1, p<0.05 for association). When analyses were restricted to more ethnically homogeneous populations, HLA-DRB1*0405 showed a significant susceptibility to RA in Koreans (OR 5.65, 95% CI 4.32-7.39), whereas the HLA-DRB1*0301, *0403, *0406, *0701, *1301, and *1405 alleles showed protective association with RA (OR 0.32-0.70, p<0.05 for association). In conclusion, it was found that HLA-DRB1 *0101, *0401, *0405, *0410, and *1001 are susceptible, while HLA-DRB1* 0301, *0403, *0406, *0701, *1301, and *1405 are protective in Asian-Mongoloids. All the RA-associated alleles except DRB1*0301 could be explained by the structural model supporting the SE hypothesis that RA susceptibility is determined by the combination of amino acid residues at HLA-DR beta71 and beta74, not by beta71 alone.

Keyword

Arthritis, Rheumatoid; Genetics; Epitopes; HLA-DRB1; Meta-analysis; Asian Continental Ancestry Group

MeSH Terms

*Alleles
Arthritis, Rheumatoid/*genetics
Asian Continental Ancestry Group/*genetics
*Genetic Predisposition to Disease
HLA-DR Antigens/chemistry/*genetics
Humans