HLA antigens in Alzheimer's disease.

The histocompatibility antigens of the A, B and C loci were typed for 32 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 35 controls of the same age. The results were also compared to the distribution of HLA antigens in a series of 900 healthy blood donors. No statistically significant differences were found between the Alzheimer patients and the controls. HLA--Cw1 was found significantly less frequently in the group comprising the patients with Alzheimer's disease and their controls together, than in the younger blood group. This leads us to suggest that an age-matched control group may be needed, at least when the patients are elderly.