HLA-G 14 bp insertion/deletion polymorphism and its association with sHLA-G levels in Behçet’s disease Tunisian patients

The purpose of this study was to investigate the HLA-G 3’UTR 14 bp polymorphism and sHLA-G levels in Tunisian patients with BD. The study included 119 patients with BD and 170 healthy blood donors (HD). HLA-G 14 bp polymorphism was genotyped by polymerase chain reaction. Serum levels of soluble HLA-G (sHLA-G) were measured using a commercial ELISA kit. A significant increased frequency of the −14 bp HLA-G allele was detected in patients with BD compared to HD (0.58 vs 0.49, p = 0.023), and a significant increased frequency of HLA-G −14/−14 bp was observed in patients with BD compared to HD [0.37 vs 0.22, p = 0.007, OR 2.04 (95% CI 1.21–3.42)]. The mean plasmatic concentration of sHLA-G levels were significantly increased in patients with active disease [231.63 ± 286.4 U/mL] compared to those with inactive disease (103.14 ± 77.8 U/mL, p = 0.03) and HD (121.41 ± 24.1 U/mL, p = 0.04). Furthermore, our results showed that there is no association between HLA-G 14 bp polymorphism and sHLA-G plasma levels.