Familial pemphigus vulgaris.

Familial pemphigus vulgaris was found in a Jewish woman and her son who developed the disease within a period of 18 months from one another. HLA typing was performed in the mother and son as well as in the unaffected father and sister. Examination of the HLA antigens in this family indicates that there may be different variants of DR4, DQw3 and that one of them carried by the mother and son as part of the haplotype A30, B18, DR4, DQw3 is associated with pemphigus vulgaris. Our findings are in favor of the concept that particular polymorphic residues of class II major histocompatibility molecules are correlated with disease susceptibility.