Leucocyte antigens and disease. I. Association of HL-A2 and chronic glomerulonephritis.

The HL-A2 leucocyte antigen was found to be present in a significantly higher percentage of 485 patients with chronic glomerulonephritis than in 428 normal control subjects. No correlation could be shown between any of the ABO groups and chronic glomerulonephritis. There was no statistically significant difference in the frequency of HL-A2 when the controls were compared with 280 patients with a variety of other diseases. The trend toward an excess of HL-A2 positives among patients with glomerulonephritis was also seen in a study of 108 sibships, though the difference fell short of statistical significance. It was concluded that an HL-A2 positive person was about 1.5 times as likely to develop chronic glomerulonephritis as an HL-A2 negative person.