HLA-B27 polymorphism in Turkish patients with ankylosing spondylitis

The aim of this study was to determine the distribution of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B27 subtypes in serologically HLA-B27-positive ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients and healthy controls from the Turkish population and to compare this with other reports from other populations. We subtyped HLA-B27 in 38 HLA-B27-positive Turkish patients with AS and 47 HLA-B27-positive healthy controls without AS by polymerase chain reaction with specific sequence primers (PCR-SSP). The results demonstrated that: B*2705 was the predominant subtype among both of the patients (71.1%) and controls (68.0%). B*2702 was observed in 26.3% and 32.0% of the patients and controls, respectively. B*2708 subtype was found in 2.6% of the patients but not among the control group. When the distribution of B27 subtypes in Turkish populations was compared with that in other populations, similar frequencies with the Caucasian–Europe groups were noted. However, this should be interpreted carefully because of the small number of individuals in our study.