Determination of HLA-B27 Subtypes in Iranian Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis

The human leukocyte antigen-b27 is one of the class i molecules of the majorhistocompatibility complex which is strongly associated with ankylosing spondylitis (as).the strength of the disease association with b27 varies markedly among racial and ethnicpopulations. it is an allele family, which constitutes about 31 subtypes, with a considerablegeographic and ethnic difference in distribution. it is important to know whether certainsubtypes show any preferential association with as. because there is no report regardinghla-b27 subtypes in iranian patients with as, the main purpose of the present study wasto assess the frequency of subtypes of human leukocyte antigen (hla)-b27 in patients withankylosing spondylitis in iranian populationone hundred and nineteen as patients (82 hla-b27 positive and 37 hla-b27 negative)were selected for this study. hla-b27 positive patients were screened by polymerase chainreaction amplification with sequence-specific primers (pcr-ssp) for b*27 subtyping.the results of present study revealed that only two subtypes were detected in iranianpatients, including b*2705 (52 patients, 63.4%) and b*2702 (30 patients, 36.6%).our resu lts showed a restricted number of hla-b27 subtypes associated with as iniran and an elevated frequency of the b*2705 allele in these patients similar to other eurocaucasoid(aryan) groups in the world.