Association between histocompatability antigens (HLA) and nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus

Department of Bacteriology, Institute of Dermatology, Homerton Grove, London E9 * Department of Medicine, Regional Hospital, Galway, Ireland Received March 5, 1982 Accepted September 19, 1982 We investigated the association between phenotypes of histocompatability antigen (HLA) and nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus in two populations—healthy laboratory workers and patients attending an outpatients' clinic. When data from the two sources were pooled, it was evident that the presence of HLA-DR3 was associated with carriage, and the presence of HLA-DR2, HLA-DR1 and HLA-Bw35 with lack of carriage. However, since each person may have two antigenic specificities encoded at the HLA-A, the HLA-B, and the HLA-DR loci, the carriage of the organism was analysed for paired combinations of the more frequent phenotypes. For example, the lack of carriage evident with HLA-DR1 was more marked with the DR1-A11 and DR1-B7 combinations while the predisposition towards carriage shown with HLA-DR3 was more marked with the DR3-DR5 combination. The importance of the analysis of antigen combinations is discussed in relation to association of single antigens with carriage of S. aureus .