Molecular genetics of major histocompatibility complex class II genes in hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common malignant tumor of the liver with a possible genetic predisposition. We have studied the HLA-DQ and-DR regions of 57 unrelated HCC patients of southern Chinese origin using molecular DNA techniques and compared them with 104 normal controls. Seventy-six hepatitis B carriers (HBsAg) were also studied. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was used to genotype the MHC class II DR, DQ, and DQ loci of the subjects. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using sequence specific primer for DQ genes was also performed. No significant difference was found in the HLA-DQ and-DR loci between HCC patients and normal controls, HCC patients and HBsAg carriers, or HBsAg carriers and normal controls respectively. Forty-one HCC patients were HBsAg positive, and no difference was found in the HLA-DQ and-DR genotype between this group of patients compared with the group of normal controls or HBsAg carriers. Thirty-six HCC patients had elevated -fetoprotein levels, and 15 HCC patients had normal levels. No difference in the HLA-DQ and-DR loci was detected between these two groups and the controls. The results suggest that HLA-DQ and-DR genotypes are not associated with hepatocellular carcinoma in southern Chinese.This study is partly supported by a grant 221400110 from the University and Polytechnics Grants Committee, Hong Kong, and the Rita and Thomas Liu Research Fund, Hong Kong.