Prospective analysis of HLA classes I and II antigen frequency in patients with Peyronie's disease.

Abstract

The pathogenesis of Peyronie's disease remains unclear. Previous studies have described possible associations among various HLAs and Peyronie's disease. However, only small series comprising 9 to 52 patients were analyzed in these studies and published results are controversial. We prospectively investigated a possible association of Peyronie's disease with HLA classes I and II specificity in a large patient group. A total of 154 consecutive patients with Peyronie's disease were typed serologically for HLA class I antigens. Molecular typing of HLA class II alleles was performed by polymerase chain reaction sequence specific primers. Results were compared with those in healthy bone marrow donors for HLA classes I (2,450) and II (316), serving as representative controls selected from the local population. In addition, HLA distribution in a German normal cohort of 14,835 individuals served as a control. No significant difference in HLA classes I and II antigen frequency was evident in patients with Peyronie's disease compared with healthy controls. The results of this study do not indicate any significant association between Peyronie's disease and antigens of the HLA system.