Association between HLA and leukemia in a mixed Brazilian population

OBJECTIVE: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the class I HLA antigens and class II HLA allele frequencies in 164 patients with leukemia: 35 patients with ALL (acute lymphoid leukemia), 50 with AML (acute myeloid leukemia) and 78 with CML (chronic myeloid leukemia). METHODS: The genotyping of class I HLA was performed by microlymphocytotoxicity and of class II by PCR-SSP (polymerase chain reaction - sequence specific of primers) (One Lambda, Canoga Park, CA, USA). RESULTS: In patients with LLA, frequencies of HLA-B45 and HLA-B56 were higher (P = 0.02; OR = 3.13; 95%IC = 0.94-10.44; P = 0.03; OR = 3.61; 95%IC = 0.47-27.64, respectively), than in controls. In patients with AML, the frequency of HLA-B7 (P = 0.01; OR = 2.41; 95%IC = 1.25-4.67) was higher than in controls. The presence of HLA-B45 (P= 0.01; OR = 3.29; 95%IC = 1.46-7.40), HLA-DRB1*04 (P = 0.002; OR = 2.17; 95%IC = 1.36-3.46) and HLA-DRB1*08 (P = 0.004; OR = 2.36; 95%IC = 1.34-4.16) was associated to increased risk of CML developing. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that variants of HLA confer susceptibility to the same forms of leukemia, and could provide new tools for the investigation of genetics and etiology of this disease.

HLA; Leukemia; Genetic association