Comparison of Dermatoglyphics and Human Leukocyte Antigens in Patients With Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus in Markazy Province

Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) or type 1 diabetes is an organ-specific autoimmune disease that caused by destruction of insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. Etiology of this disease is still unknown. It is seen that genetic and environmental factors play an important role for susceptibility to develop type 1 diabetes. The relationship between HLA associated factors and susceptibility to IDDM disease, was reported by several investigators. Also, some studies show that dermatoglyphics is associated with type 1 diabetes. However, it is maybe there is an association between HLA and dermatoglyphics inpatients'with type 1 diabetes and these characteristics could be applied for diagnosis of disease.

In this study, the prevalence of HLA (with using standard microlymphocytotoxicity method) and dermatoglyphics determined in 30 Iranian patients with IDDM and 30 normal healthy controls with similar ethnic background and the same geographical area.

A significantly higher frequency of HLA-DQ, A2, DR3 and DQ2 were found in IDDM cases compared to the controls. The results obtain from dermatoglyphics showed that line ab was reduced in male and female type 1 diabetes. The reciever operating chractristics curve showed that the positive point for lines ab in right and left hands were 34.7 and 35.25, respectively.

There is no association between HLA and dermatoglyphics. With considering of genes encoding of HLA separated from genes determining dermatoglyphics, HLA typing and dermatoglyphics seem to be interesting tools for genetic studies related to type 1 diabetes. Further studies are recommended in order to provide more insight into the susceptibility to this disorder.