The Association between Human Leukocyte Antigens and Hypertensive End-Stage Renal Failure among Yemeni Patients

Objectives: many studies have attempted to locate a connection between various genetic factors and the pathogenesis of certain diseases. a number of these have found human leukocyte antigens (hlas) to be the most significant genetic factors affecting the susceptibility of an individual to a certain disease. the present casecontrol study aimed to determine the connection between class i and class ii hlas and cases of hypertensive end-stage renal failure (hesrf), as contrasted with healthy controls, in yemen. methods: the study was carried out between march 2013 and march 2014 and included 50 hesrf patients attending the urology & nephrology center at al-thawra university hospital in sana’a, yemen, and 50 healthy controls visiting the same centre for kidney donation. among both patients and controls, hla class i (a, b and c) and class ii (drb1) genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reactions. results: there was an association (odds ratio: 4.0) with hla-a9(24) and hesrf, although this was not statistically significant. a significant protective function was found for the hlacw3 and drb1-8 genes against the development of hesrf. although hla-b14 was present in some patients (0.06) and not in the controls, this difference was not statistically significant enough to conclude that hla-b14 plays a role in the genetic predisposition for end-stage renal disease development. there was a high frequency of hla-a2, b5, cw6, drb1-3, drb1-4 and drb1-13 in both patients and controls. conclusion: although no hlas were found to play a highly significant role in genetic predisposition to hesrf, certain hla genes could be considered as protective genes against hesrf development.