Nonclassical human leukocyte antigen (HLA-G, HLA-E, and HLA-F) in coronary artery disease.

AIMS: Several evidences suggest the association between the evolution of coronary artery disease (CAD) and the development of coronary syndrome that is often associated with disrupted plaque and partial or complete thrombosis of the related artery. Because of the inflammatory nature of CAD, we investigated the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-G, HLA-E, and HLA-F genetic polymorphisms within CAD patients and evaluated their potential association with this disease in Tunisian population.

METHODS: Different polymorphisms in HLA-G (14-bp Insertion/Deletion, +3142C/G), HLA-E (HLA-E*01:01/01:03 A/G), HLA-F (HLA-F*01:02 T/C, 01:03 C/T, 01:04 A/C) genes were typed using different laboratory techniques in a cohort of 89 CAD patients and 84 controls.

RESULTS: A significant association was reported between the HLA-G +3142 G allele (OR=1.64, 95% CI=1.05-2.56, p=0.02) and increased risk of CAD. No association was found for the other studied polymorphisms. When we considered the haplotypes, we found TDELCA and TDELGG haplotypes associated to CAD with p=0.008 and p=0.030, respectively, suggesting the potential interaction between HLA-G and HLA-E genes.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicated that the HLA-G +3142C/G polymorphism and TDELCA and TDELGG haplotypes can harbour a reliable diagnosis value for the risk of CAD development suggesting that HLA-G, -E and -F molecules might be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. However, further studies are necessary to confirm our results.