Effects of the second HLA‐DQ haplotype on the association with childhood insulin‐dependent diabetes mellitus

Analysis of HLA-DQ molecules in a large study comprising 425 consecutively diagnosed Swedish Caucasians with IDDM and 367 age, sex and geographically matched controls confirms previous observations that: (a) DQB1*0302-DQA1*0301 confer susceptibility in a dominant manner, except when they are associated with DQB1*0602-DQA1*0102; (b) DQB1*0501-DQA1*0201 does not confer susceptibility to IDDM in either homozygous or heterozygous combinations with any other DQ molecules except when it is in association with DQB1*0302-DQA1*0301; (c) heterozygous combinations of DQB1*0302-DQA1*0301 and DQB1*0501-DQA1*0201 confer the highest risk to IDDM; (d) in DQ2 positive patients being negative for DQ8 in second haplotype (n = 58) the susceptibility may be explained by DR, since all these patients were DR3 positive, or by unknown factors between DQ and DR and (e) DQB1*0602-DQA1*0102 confers protection in a dominant manner. This large study does not confirm the positive association previously observed in Norwegians between the DQ8/DQ4 genotype and IDDM, as this genotype was not significantly associated with IDDM in Swedish patients. The new findings in this study include (a) that DQ8/DQ6 (DQB1*0604-DQA1*0102) was associated with IDDM in Swedish patients and (b) analysis of individual amino acids in DQB1 chain does not fully explain susceptibility to IDDM.