Major histocompatibility complex class II (DRB1*, DQA1*, and DQB1*) and DRB1*04 subtypes' associations of Hashimoto's thyroiditis in a Greek population

Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is an autoimmune disease resulting from complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors. The disease is associated with certain human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles in various populations. We aimed to determine in this study, for the first time in a Greek population, the association of HLA-DRB1*, -DQA1*, and -DQB1* alleles with HT. HLA-DRB1*, -DQA1*, and -DQB1* alleles' and -DRB1*04 subtypes' distribution was evaluated in 125 patients with HT and in 500 healthy control individuals by using a DNA-based sequence-specific primer method. Chi^_squared tests and Bonferroni correction method were applied in the statistical analysis of the data. Significantly higher frequency of DRB1*04 (24.8% vs 7.7%, P  < 0.0001) was observed in HT patients, while HLA-DRB1*07 was significantly decreased (2.8% vs 7.9%, P  < 0.05). HLA-DRB1*04 subtyping showed a significant increase of DRB1*0405 (21% vs 7.8%, P  < 0.0001) in HT patients. Also significant high frequencies of DQB1*0201 (14.8% vs 8.2%, P  < 0.001), DQB1*0302 (18.8% vs 7.0%, P  < 0.0001), and DQA1*0301 (25.6% vs 7.8%, P  < 0.0001) were recorded in the patient group. Conducting the first research of this kind in a Greek population, our study tries to provide an evaluation of the prevalence of HT relating to HLA-DRB1*0405, and we report a relative risk of 2.7 for HT in a Greek population.