Association of HLA-A, B and DRB1 alleles with leukemia in Han population in Hunan Province

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of HLA-A, B, and DRB1 alleles with leukemia in the Han population in Hunan Province. METHODS: HLA-A, B, and DRB1 alleles were genotyped in 105 patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia, 25 with acute lymphocytic leukaemia, and 48 with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia using polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primer (PCR-SSP). The hemopoietic stem cells from 3,664 unrelated normal individuals of Han nationality in Hunan were used as the control group. RESULTS: The phenotypic frequencies of HLA-B58, DR12, and DR14 were significantly higher in patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia than in the control group, with relative risk of 6.1287, 1.6519, and 1.6479, respectively. In patients with acute lymphocytic leukaemia, the phenotypic frequency of HLA-B58 was significantly higher than that in the control group, with the relative risk of 7.4055. In patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia, the frequencies of HLA-B58 and DR8 phenotypes were significantly higher but HLA-A24 frequency was significantly lower than those of the control group, with the relative risk of 13.9789, 2.2839, and 0.4012, respectively. CONCLUSION: HLA-B58, DR12, DR14 alleles appear to contribute to the genetic susceptibility of patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia. HLA-B58 allele can be associated with the genetic susceptibility for patients with acute lymphocytic leukaemia. In patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia, HLA-B58 and DR8 are probably the susceptible alleles whereas HLA-A24 allele may play a protective role.