Association of HLA specificity LB-E12 (MB1, DC1, MT1) with lepromatous leprosy in a Venezuelan population.

To investigate whether an association could be found between HLA and lepromatous leprosy a population study was performed in Tachira, Venezuela. This was done in the same endemic area in which recently both non-random parental HLA-haplotype and preferential segregation of the HLA specificity LB-E12 (MB1, DC1, MT1) was demonstrated in lepromatous leprosy patients from multicase families. In this study 32 lepromatous patients and 32 healthy controls were typed for HLA-A, -B, -C, -DR and the specificities MB and MT. The frequency of LB-E12 (MB1, DC1, MT1) showed a significant increase in lepromatous leprosy patients (p = 0.04). This is the first report concerning HLA and leprosy which confirms in the same endemic area an association observed in families on the population level.