Unique intronic variation of HLA-DQB gene in early-onset periodontitis
The HLA serotypes of patients with periodontitis were examined to determine if immunogenetic characteristics were associated with the susceptibility to periodontal disease from the background of immunogenetic characters. Seventy patients and 26 healthy subjects were randomly selected for HLA class II serotyping. Twenty subjects were chosen from these patients for the RFLP analysis of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1. An additional 20 EOP, 20 adult periodontitis, and 40 healthy subjects were selected. HLA serological typing was performed by the complement- dependent microtoxicity method . Results indicated no HLA serotype specific to any type of periodontitis. No clinical differences except age were found between patients with this gene variation and other patients. Atypical Bam HI and EcoRI restriction sites and 41-nt repeated sequence were found in the intron before the third exon of HLA-DQB gene. These results suggest that these intronic gene variations may be useful a gene markers for a subpopulation of early-onset periodontitis and might affect immune reaction such as antigen recognition. [P.W.]
Takashiba, S., S. Noji F. Nishimura, H. Ohyama, H. Kurihara, Y. Nomura, S.Taniguchi and Y. Murayama, J Periodont, 65:379, 1994