Muscle fibers in inflammatory myopathies and cultured myoblasts express the nonclassical major histocompatibility antigen HLA-G.

We demonstrate that HLA-G, a nonclassical major histocompatibility complex class I antigen, is expressed in muscle fibers in various inflammatory myopathies. Further, interferon-gamma induces surface expression and upregulation of mRNA transcripts corresponding to different isoforms of HLA-G in myoblasts cultured from control subjects and patients. HLA-G may have important immunological functions in inflammatory myopathies and other local immune reactions as they occur during vaccination, myoblast transplantation, and gene therapy.