Allelic markers close to prolactin are associated with HLA‐DRB1 susceptibility alleles among women with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

These data indicate that there may be linkage disequilibrium between HLA-DRB1 alleles and microsatellite marker alleles close to the prolactin gene among women with RA and SLE. This suggests the possibility of extended haplotypes encoding for HLA-DRB1 susceptibility and high prolactin production, which contribute to susceptibility to both RA and SLE.