Accumulated evidence indicates that polymorphisms in human leukocyte antigens (HLA) are associated with susceptibility to coronary artery disease (CAD). However, whether HLA-DQB1 alleles are correlated with susceptibility to CAD is unclear. In this study, significantly lower frequencies of the allele groups (DQB1*03:01:01G and DQB1*05:03:01G) and the genotypes (DQB1*03:01:01G/DQB1*03:01:01G and DQB1*03:01:01G/DQB1*05:03:01G) were observed in the CAD group compared with that in the controls. However, notably higher frequencies of DQB1*04:01:01G and genotype DQB1*05:01:01G/DQB1*03:01:01G were observed in the CAD patients than in the controls. Further analysis in subgroups showed that DQB1*03:01:01G was present at a significantly lower frequency in both female and male CAD patients compared with the corresponding controls; however, DQB1*04:01:01G was overtly high only in male CAD patients. CAD patients with diabetes showed a negative association with DQB1*03:01:01G and DQB1*05:03:01G and a positive association with DQB1*04:01:01G, DQB1*03:02:01G and DQB1*03:03:02G. Results of logistic regression analysis indicated that DQB1*03:01:01G and DQB1*05:03:01G were significantly associated with reduced susceptibility to CAD, but DQB1*04:01:01G, DQB1*03:02:01G and DQB1*03:03:02G had no correlation with CAD. Together, these findings indicate that CAD in Southern Han Chinese is negatively associated with HLA-DQB1*03:01:01G and DQB1*05:03:01G, and males with HLA-DQB1*04:01:01G are likely to have high risk for CAD.
Keywords: Coronary artery disease (CAD); DQB1; Human leukocyte antigen (HLA); Polymorphisms.
Copyright © 2017 American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.