An immunogenetic heterogeneity in multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Two clinical forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), primarily chronic progressive MS (PCP MS) and relapsingiremitting MS (R/R MS) have been shown to differ in several respects. The results of genomic HLA class II typing with restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of 62 MS patients fromWestern Norway, 42 with R/R MS and 20 PCP MS, are reported on here. As in previous studies of Swedish patients, the haplotype DRwl7(3), DQw2 was found to be five times more common in R/R MS than in PCP MS. This finding supports the hypothesis that R/R and PCP MS are immunogenetically separate entities. In contrast with a previous investigation of Norwegian MS patients, no association ofMS with glutamine at position 34 of the HLA-DQa chain or with defined sequences of the HLA-DQBI gene was found.