ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is an immune-mediated disorder of the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The aim of this study was to investigate associations between HLA-DR/DQ alleles and CIDP in Tunisian patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: HLA DR/DQ genotyping was performed using polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) with 36 CIDP patients and 100 healthy individuals serving as the control group. RESULTS: CIDP in Tunisian patients was found to be associated with the HLA-DRB1*13 allele (pc=0.03) (where pc denotes the Bonferroni corrected probability value). Moreover, the two haplotypes, DRB1*13/DQB1*06 (22.22% of patients vs. 8.5% of controls, pc=0.017) and DRB1*07/DQB1*03 (13.88% of patients vs. 3% of controls, pc=0.005), were found to confer a susceptibility to CIDP. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first study performed to analyze the association of HLA-DRB1/DQB1 alleles on CIDP susceptibility in a Tunisian population.
