ABSTRACT
Recently several reports have described contradictory results after studying the association between restriction fragments length polymorphisms (RFLP) of T cell receptor (TcR) beta-chain genes and multiple sclerosis (MS). We studied the allelic, genotypic and haplotypic distribution of RFLPs of TcR beta chain gene segments C beta, V beta 8 and V beta 11 in 97 unrelated multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, 11 with chronic progressive MS and 86 with relapsing/remitting (R/R) MS. We found the distribution of the TcR haplotypes defined by the alleles of the three loci studied in the MS patients was significantly different from that found in control individuals. The distribution of TcR haplotypes in R/R MS patients was also different from that observed in controls. Our data suggest that the TcR beta chain gene complex contains one or more genes involved in genetic susceptibility to develop MS.
Subject(s)
Multiple Sclerosis/genetics , Multiple Sclerosis/immunology , Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta/genetics , Alleles , Autoradiography , DNA Probes , Disease Susceptibility , Genotype , Haplotypes , Humans , Nucleic Acid Hybridization , Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length , SpainABSTRACT
Conversely to the well-established association of DR2/Dw2 with multiple sclerosis (MS) susceptibility in Caucasoids, several studies have found an association of DR4 in populations from Mediterranean origin. We have studied the distribution of the different DR4B1 subtypes in Spanish MS patients. Oligonucleotide probes were selected in order to type samples amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from Spanish DR4+ MS patients (25) and controls (28). No DR4B1 subtypes were found to be increased in MS. MS susceptibility linked to DR4 may be due to the presence of shared functional epitopes common to the different HLA-DR4B1 subtypes.
