Analysis of antibody markers, DRB1, DRB5, DQA1 and DQB1 genes and modeling of DR2 molecules in DR2-positive patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.
HLA-DR2 is negatively associated with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). The aim of the present study was to analyze DR2-positive patients among 425 consecutively diagnosed unrelated Swedish children with IDDM and in 367 matched controls. HLA-DRB, -DQA and -DQB were determined by Taq I restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and hybridization with sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes was done for DQA1, DQB1 and DRB1 and DRB5. DR2 was positive in 11/425 patients (3%) and 101/367 (28%) controls (OR 0.07, p