The Association Between HLA Class II Alleles and the Occurrence of Factor VIII Inhibitor in Thai Patients with Hemophilia A

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate the association between HLA class II alleles and the occurrence of FVIIIinhibitor in Thai hemophilia A patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS The distribution of HLA-DRB1 alleles and DQB1 alleles in 57 Thai hemophilia A patientsand 36 blood donors as controls was determined using the PCR sequence-specific primer (PCR-SSP) method, and theassociation between the occurrence of factor VIII (FVIII) inhibitor and the presence of certain HLA class II alleles wasinvestigated. RESULTS The frequency of HLA-DRB1*15 was higher in the hemophilia A patients with and without FVIII inhibitor,whereas that of DRB1*14, DRB1*07, and DQB1*02 was lower in the hemophilia A patients with FVIII inhibitor, ascompared to controls. Interestingly, only the frequency of DRB1*15 was significantly higher in the patients with inhibitorthan in the controls (P = 0.021). Moreover, the frequency of DRB1*15 in the patients with inhibitor was higher than inthose without inhibitor (P = 0.198). CONCLUSION The study's findings show that the DRB1*15 allele might have contributed to the occurrence of inhibitorin the Thai hemophilia A patients; however, additional research using larger samples and high-resolution DRB1 typingis warranted.