Resistance to autoimmune thyroid disease is associated with HLA-DQ.

Genotypes of DQA1 and DQB1 genes were determined by polymerase chain reaction followed by dot blot hybridization with sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes in 105 patients with goitrous autoimmune thyroiditis (Hashimoto's thyroiditis) and in 67 patients with Graves' disease to investigate whether specific DQ alleles were associated with susceptibility or resistance to autoimmune thyroid diseases. Hashimoto's thyroiditis was found to be negatively associated with DQA1*0102 and DQB1*0602 whereas Graves' disease showed a negative association with DQB1*0501. No strongly positive association with a specific DQ allele was found in either disease. These results suggest that the HLA-DQ gene may be a genetic marker for resistance to autoimmune thyroid diseases.