[Haplotipic associations of the two most common HLA-B*27 allel...

The aim of the present study was to analyze haplotypic associations of two the most common HLA-B*27 subtypes (B*2702 and *2705) in the Croatian population. One hundred and eleven unrelated HLA-B*27 positive individuals were included. None of them had any sign of ankylosing spondylitis. The total number of analyzed haplotypic associations was 112 because one individual was homozygous for HLA-B*27. HLA-B*27 alleles as well as HLA-A and DRB1 specificities were tested by PCR-SSP method. Among seven different HLA-B*27 alleles observed among our individuals, B*2705 was the most frequent (61.6%), followed by B*2702 (30.4%), while the frequency of all other observed alleles (B*2701, B*2703, B*2704, B*2708 and B*2714) was less than 2.0%. HLA-A*02 was the most frequent specificity at HLA-A locus in both groups of haplotypic associations (B*2702 and B*2705) and no difference in distribution of HLA-A genes was observed between two groups. Analysis of HLA-B*2702 haplotypic associations showed the high frequency of DRB1*16 (44.2%) in comparison to B*2705 haplotypic associations (4.0%) with significant P value (P<0.00001). HLA-DRB1*01 demonstrated significantly higher presence among 69 B*2705 haplotypic associations compared to 34 B*2702 haplotypic associations (28.0% vs. 1.5%; P<0.00001).