Subtypes of HLA-DRB1*03, *08, *11, *12, *13 and *14 in early onset pauciarticular juvenile chronic arthritis (EOPA) with and without iridocyclitis.

A set of 200 patients with early onset pauciarticular juvenile chronic arthritis (EOPA-JCA) from Munich (165) and Prague (35) was investigated for the subtypes of HLA-DRB1*03, *08, *11, *12, *13 and *14. In addition, the relationship of DRB1, DQA1, DQB1 and DPB1 alleles with iridocyclitis in patients with EOPA-JCA was investigated. Subtyping for DRB1*03 was not informative, as all DR3 positive patients and all except one of the controls possessed DRB1*0301. Thus, the role of DRB1*0302 could not be assessed. The subtypes for DRB1*12, *13, and *14 did not reveal any statistically significant difference between patients and controls. In contrast, the subtype DRB1*1104 was the one most strongly associated with EOPA-JCA (chi 2 31.2, p value < 10(-6)). It appears that the subtype DRB1*1103 may also be associated with EOPA-JCA. The association of EOPA-JCA with DR8 is almost exclusively due to the subtype *0801. For the other alleles *0802, *0803, and *0804 there is no evidence for or against involvement in JCA. The analysis of iridocyclitis in EOPA-JCA revealed that DRB1*1104 is not more frequent in patients with eye disease than in patients without eye disease. The presence of DRB1*01 appears to convey some protective effect against the occurrence of iridiocylitis in EOPA-JCA, as had been previously observed by Melin-Aldana et al.