Association of HLA-DRB1 Alleles in Juvenile-onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) in Iranian Children

Introduction Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune and inflammatory disease. Many studies show HLA alleles can be associated with SLE. The aim of this study was to determine the association of HLA-DRB1 alleles with juvenile- onset in Iranian children. Materials and Methods At a case – control study, 31 children with systemic lupus erythematosus (case group) who referred to Mofid Children’s Hospital, Shahid Behehsti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, and 56 healthy children (control group) were participant.  Genomic  DNA  was  extracted  and  HLA  typing  was performed by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) with Sequence - Specific Primers (SSP) technique. Results HLA- DRB1*01, HLA- DRB1*04, HLA- DRB1*11 and HLA- DRB1*13 were detected to as most frequent alleles associated with SLE in Iranian children. The frequency of HLA DRB1*08 was not significantly different in both groups (P>0.05(.  HLA- DRB1*07 had a higher rate of repetition in the control group than patients with SLE. Conclusion There was a significant difference in the frequency of some alleles between patients and controls group, which could be related to susceptibility to SLE. These differences between frequencies of some alleles in both groups may help to determine the onset of lupus in children.