Analysis of HLA-DRB1*1501 in Multiple Sclerosis Patients in Khuzestan Province, Iran

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating, autoimmune and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS). The pathogenesis of this disease is still unknown, although there are evidences of environmental factors affecting subjects with genetic predisposition factors. The contribution of HLA-DRB1*1501 to MS risk has been replicated and confirmed in most population-based studies. Since there are no data with respect to the association of HLA-DRB1*1501 and MS in Khuzestan province.
The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation of this allele with MS in Khuzestan province.
In this case-control study, DRB1*1501 allele was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) in 200 MS patients and 200 unrelated healthy individuals, without any autoimmune disease from the same geographical region. The frequencies of the mentioned allele were compared between the patients and control group using SPSS 16 statistical software and the chi square test.
The results demonstrated that distribution of DRB1*1501 allele was statistically different between patient and control (41.5% vs. 22.81%, P The study presents association of susceptibility to multiple sclerosis in southwest of Iran with HLA-DRB1*1501 allele in both Arab and Persian ethnic; although DRB1*1501 may be is not involved in the pathogenesis of different MS disease subtypes. The results are consistent with most of the other studies in Iran; and also most studies in European populations.