VKH Syndrome With The HLA-DRB Gene

Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) syndrome is an autoimmune disease involving several organs including eyes, skin, brain and auditory system. The typical clinical manifestation is bilateral, diffuse granulomatous uveitis associated with alopecia, poliosis, vitiligo, tinnitus, dysacusis as well as meningeal irritation with pleocytosis in the cerebrospinal fluid. VKH occurs more common in pigmented races, especially in Japanese, Chinese, Brazilian and American Indians. Conventional serological results in Japan and China have shown that the frequency of HLA-DR4 antigen is significantly higher in patients with VKH than that in normal controls. The objective of this study is designated to find the associated genes in VKH patients by molecular biological techniques.Fifty-one VKH patients and 62 normal subjects were tested for HLA-DRB genes by PCR-SSP method. All of the patients and controls are the Hans. The results indicated that the frequencies of DRB1*04 and DRB4 genes were significantly higher in VKH patients than that in normal controls. The frequency of DRB1* 04 was 44.1% in VKH...