Interrelationships of HLA‐DR, MB, AND MT phenotypes, autoantibody expression, and clinical features in systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

Abstract The interrelationships of serologic and clinical features and the HLA–DR, MB, and MT specificities were examined in 70 white patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. HLA–DR2 and MB1 were significantly increased when compared with controls from the Eighth International Histocompatibility Testing Workshop but not with local controls. DR2 and DR3 correlated with increased seroreactivity (anti‐Ro, antiDNA, rheumatoid factor, and hyperglobulinemia), and anti‐Ro with clinically overt sicca complex. Thus, DR2 and DR3 may be markers of a major histocompatibility complex–mediated immune hyperresponsiveness that affects expression of systemic lupus erythematosus.