The relationship of HLA class I and II phenotypes to clinical features of Behcet's disease

Frequencies of HLA class I and II antigen speificities were determined in Japanese patients with Behcet's disease (BD), and their association with various clinical features or immunogenetic predisposition to this disease were studied. Compared to controls, a significantly high frequency of B 51 and a low frequency of DQw 1 were observed in patients with ocular involvement, especially in those who did not have genital ulcer. In patients without ocular lesions, however, no significant difference of HLA antigen frequency was observed compared to the control group. The positive association of B 51 and the negative one of DQw1 were also observed in male patients but not in female patients. When patients were further subdivided into 2 groups according to the age of onset, Dr1 was found to be significantly Frequent in patients with early-onset compared to those with late-onset or controls. These results suggest that BD is genetically complicated disease and the susceptibility genes in the HLA region are different among male and female patients, among patients with or without ocular lesions, or those with early or late-onset.