Early age of disease onset in African American type 1 diabetes patients is associated with DQB1*0201 allele

The goal of this study is to assess the association of HLA-DQ alleles with the age of onset of type 1 diabetes in African American patients. Using PCR oligonucleotide typing, HLA-DQA1 and DQB1 alleles were determined. DQA1*0301, DQB1*0201, and DQB1*0302 were significantly increased in African American patients. However, the DQB1*0602 allele was decreased in these patients. In addition, DQA1*0401 and DQB1*0402, were associated with protection in African Americans. When stratified by age of onset, prepubertal patients showed an absence of the protective allele DQB1*0602 and a significant increase in DQB1*0201 compared to postpubertal patients. The high frequency of the HLA-DQ susceptibility allele in pre-pubertal patients suggest that the biology of disease in this group may differ from type 1 diabetes with a later age of onset.