Sporadic Pemphigus Foliaceus and Class II Human Leucocyte Antigen Allele Associations in the White British and Indo-Asian Populations in the UK

Background Pemphigus foliaceus (PF) has both genetic and environmental susceptibility factors. Current data on human leucocyte antigen (HLA) in patients with sporadic PF are limited. Aim To better define the distribution of HLA alleles in patients with PF in the UK. Methods We recruited 36 patients [26 of white British (WB) descent, 10 of Indo-Asian (IA) descent] with PF who were living in the UK and 159 ethnically matched normal controls, and analysed their class II HLA DRB1 and DQB1 allele distribution. Results There was an increased frequency of DRB1*1404 in association with DQB1*0503 in IA patients with PF. The DRB1*04 allele group as a whole had an increased frequency (P < 0.001) in the WB patient group compared with controls. The alleles contributing to this significance were DRB1*0401 (P = 0.03) and DRB1*0404 (P < 0.01). Conclusion This is the largest HLA association study in sporadic PF from the UK to date. There appears to be a difference in PF susceptibility alleles between WB and IA patients, highlighting the importance of racial variation in genetic susceptibility to disease development.