Published online January 2, 2008
PEDIATRICS Vol. 121 Supplement January 2008, pp. S104 (doi:10.1542/peds.2007-2022JJ)
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ENDOCRINOLOGY


HLA-DQB1*05 ASSOCIATION WITH HASHIMOTO THYROIDITIS IN CHILDREN OF NORTHERN GREEK ORIGIN

Styliani Gizaa, Assimina Galli-Tsinopouloua, Panagiota Lazidoub, Alexandra Flevab, Dimitrios Goulisc, Maria Trachanad and Sanda Nousia-Arvanitakisa

a Fourth Department of Pediatrics
d First Department of Pediatrics
c Division of Endocrinology and Human Reproduction, Second Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
b Department of Immunology, Papageorgiou General Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT), an organ-specific autoimmune disorder of the thyroid gland, is considered to be associated with the major histocompatibility complex. Association studies of human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) with HT concern adults and have not revealed consistent results.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 gene polymorphisms in Greek children and adolescents with HT.

METHODS: We analyzed the distribution of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 alleles in 17 Greek children and adolescents with HT and in 181 randomly chosen healthy subjects from northern Greece. The typing of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 genes was performed by using polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers. Differences of frequencies for HLA alleles were tested by the {chi}2 test.

RESULTS: There was no significant association detected between HT and HLA-DRB1 or HLA-DQB1 alleles. However, HLA-DRB1*16 was slightly significantly increased in patients with HT (41.2%) compared with that in controls (19.3%) (P = .057; relative risk: 2.92), and HLA-DQB1*05 was significantly increased in patients with an age of diagnosis of >10 years (87.5%) as compared with those with an age of diagnosis of ≤10 years (33.3%) (P = .05; relative risk: 14).

CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to examine children and adolescents from northern Greece with HT and analyze the distribution of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 alleles according to the age of onset of HT. However, this study needs to include a greater number of patients to ascertain the possibility of an association and avoid the result of a chance event or random variation.

Submitted by Styliani Giza