Association between HLA Class II Alleles and Response to Steroid Therapy in Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Yeo, Sang Won; Chang, Ki Hong; Kim, Tai Gyu; Han, Hoon; Choi, Hee Baeg; Suh, Byung Do

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This research investigated the association between HLA (human leukocyte antigen) class II alleles and the susceptibility to sudden sensorineural hearing loss, and between HLA class Il alleles and the results of treatment with steroid in the Korean population. MATERIALS AND METHOD: We carried out HLA-DRR1, -DQA1, -DQR1 and -DPRl genotyping in 41 patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss and in 206 healthy controls. We examined the initial hearing levels at the onset of hearing loss and the final hearing levels after the treatment, and then evaluated for the association with HLA class II alleles. HLA-DRB1, DQA1, BQB1 and DPB1 genotypings were performed by employing the sequence specific oligonucleotide probes (SSOP) method.
RESULTS
The frequencies of HLA-DRB1, DQA1, DQB1, and DP31 alleles were not significantly different between the patients and controls. When the association between the results of treatment and HLA alleles was increased, the frequencies of HLA-DRB1X14 (RR= 3.5, p<0.02), -DQA1X03 (RR=4.2, p<0.02) and -DQA1X05 (RR=3.1, p(0.03) significantly increased, but the frequencies of HIA-DQA1X01 (RR=0.2, p<0.004) and -DQB1X06 (RR =0.2, p<0.009) significantly decreased in patients who did not respond to the steroid treatment, compared with the controls. The frequencies of HLA-DQA1X01 (p<0.04) and -DQB1X06 (p<0.02) significantly increased while the frequency of HLA- DQA1X03 (p<0.003) significantly decreased in patients who responded well to steroid, compared with patients who did not.
CONCLUSION
These results suggest that the presence of HLA-DRB1X14, DQA1X03 and DQA1X05 might be an useful marker that implys poor prognoses whereas the presence of HLA-DQA101 and DQB1X06 might be a marker implying good prognoses in Korean patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss.