No significant association between HLA antigens and classic Kaposi sarcoma: molecular analysis of 49 Jewish patients.

Because of the abundance of the classical form of Kaposi sarcoma (CKS) among Jews and people of Mediterranean origin, studies have been conducted to find an association between CKS and HLA antigens. No conclusive results have been drawn, although in a number of these investigations an increased incidence of HLA-DR5 was reported. In our study 49 CKS patients of Jewish origin were serologically analyzed for HLA class I and class II antigens. We found no significant deviation in serologically defined HLA antigens frequencies between patients and 99 ethnically matched controls. However, a nonsignificant decrease in the frequencies of HLA-DR4, HLA-DR12, and the combination of DR4/DR11 was observed. Then we determined in these patients HLA-DRB1, HLA-DQA1, and DQB1 allelic polymorphism by oligotyping on PCR-amplified DNA. In this molecular analysis the only notable finding was a decreased frequency of the combination HLA-DQA1*0301/DQB1*0301, which appeared in one (2%) patient compared to 13 (13%) of the controls. However, the decrease was not statistically significant. On the basis of both serological and molecular analysis done on a relatively large group of CKS patients, we conclude that there is no significant linkage between HLA antigens and CKS in Jewish population.