Comparative analysis of the genetic associations of HLA-DR3 and tumour necrosis factor alpha with human IDDM.

Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) is associated with class II molecules of the MHC on chromosome 6, in particular HLA-DR and -DQ alleles, but a pathogenic role for TNF-alpha in the class III region of the MHC has also been implied. We therefore tested whether there was any independent association between a biallelic TNF polymorphism and IDDM. The TNF2 allele was present in 61 of 114 (54%) IDDM patients compared to 101 of 253 (40%) control subjects (odds ratio 1.73; p < 0.02). Stratification analysis in individuals matched for HLA-DR3 revealed, however, that this association was not independent of HLA-DR3 and is most likely to be a result of linkage disequilibrium between these alleles.