Does human leukocyte antigen influence the risk of development and type of vasculitis in Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection?

Aim of the workThe aim was to investigate the role of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles in the development of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related vasculitis.Patients and methodsFifty HCV related vasculitis patients (32 females) with a mean age of 46.78 ± 10.17 years (range 23-74 years) and a control group including 30 age and sex matched HCV infected patients without any extra-hepatic autoimmune manifestations were recruited in this study. Patients with vasculitis were classified into small and medium sized vessel vasculitis according to the type of clinical manifestations. Assessment of HLA class II alleles in leukocytes of peripheral blood of all patients and controls was performed at allele level 4 digit high resolution for DRB1 region.ResultsSeventeen patients had medium sized vessel vasculitis (group A) and 33 patients had small sized vessel vasculitis (group B). The development of HCV-related medium sized vessel vasculitis is associated with HLADRB1*3 of the 1st allele and HLADRB1*1301 of the 2nd allele-suballele, and the development of small sized vessel vasculitis is associated with HLADRB1*701 of the 1st allele-suballele.ConclusionThe results suggest that the development and the type of HCV-related vasculitis can be affected by the host genetic factors.