Investigation of HLA-DQB1*3 allele in patients with Alopecia Areata

Alopecia Areata (AA) is a multifactorial disease characterized by hair loss especially from the scalp affecting approximately 5.3 million people. Since major histocompatibility complex (HLA) region is considered to be associated with AA susceptibility, the effect of HLA-DQB1*3 allele frequency was investigated in the present study in AA patients and their respective controls.
This study consisted of 30 patients with AA (13 females and 17 males, with a mean age of 26.3 ±2.28 years) and 15 healthy controls (5 females and 10 males, with a mean age of 30.1 ±1.5). DNA was extracted from blood samples using DNG plus method and PCR-SSP was used to detect HLA-HLA-DQB1*3. Furthermore, association of this HLA allele with some baseline clinical and demographical features was assessed.
The frequency of the HLA-DQB1*3 allele was not significantly higher in patients (23.3%) as compared to the controls (26.7%). We found no association with family history, stress, phobia, and onset of the disease in patients with AA )p > 0.05(.
Our data do not show a correlation between the HLA-DQB1*3 allele and occurrence of AA in population.