HLA-B*39 allele confers susceptibility to osteoarticular complications in human brucellosis.

Abstract

To determine the contribution of HLA gene polymorphism toward susceptibility to osteoarticular focal forms of human brucellosis. A total of 57 patients with brucellosis, of whom 23 had osteoarticular complications, and 73 healthy volunteers were genotyped for HLA class I and class II antigens by a polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific primer technique. The HLA-B*39 allele was present in significantly more patients with osteoarticular complications than in the other patients (35% vs 3%; p = 0.0006, OR 15.684, 95% CI 3.453-71.231), or in the controls. The increased presence of the HLA-B39 genotype in patients with brucellosis with clinical osteoarticular manifestations suggests that this genotype confers susceptibility to developing severe osteoarticular focal forms of the disease.