hla-drb and hla-dqb allele and haplotype frequencies in iranian patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis

Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (ras) is known as the most common chronic disease of the oral cavity, which affects a range of 5-25% of the population. ras appears to be associated with some human leukocyte antigen (hla) class ii alleles and haplotypes. this study attempts to survey the distribution of hla-drb and -dqb alleles among iranian ras patients and healthy controls. in order to evaluate the association of hla-dr and dq alleles and haplotypes, 54 patients with ras and 100 unrelated healthy subjects as control group were investigated. our data indicated that drb1*13:17, drb1*15:01, and drb5*01 were significantly more frequent in ras patients in comparison to controls. however, drb3:01allele frequency was higher in the controls compared to the patients. the significantly frequent allele in the patients compared with the healthy subjects was hla-dqb1*03:02. however, both hla-dqb1*02:01 and hla-dqb1*03:01 alleles were most frequent in the healthy individuals rather than the patients. the drb*04/dqb1*03:01 and drb*01:01/dqb1*02:01 haplotypes were significantly distributed in healthy subjects compared with patients. however, drb*07:01/dqb1*03:02 haplotype was found to be significantly frequent in patients than controls. in respect of hla genes, factors are involved in the incidence of ras; various hla-drb and hla-dqb1 alleles and the related haplotypes are suggested to be the three main ras susceptibility factors in our population study.