HLA-DR restriction-fragment-length polymorphisms in narcolepsy

Abstract

Seventeen white patients from the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic compaining of excessive daytime somnolence (EDS) were selected for restriction‐fragment‐length polymorphism (RFLP) studies. Fourteen of the patients with clinically diagnosed narcolepsy were seropositive for DR2. RFLP analysis of these patients compared with a homozygous DR2‐Dw2 cell line failed to reveal any polymorphism when digested with six restriction endonucleases and hybridized with three different cDNA probes. None of the three patients with central nervous system hypersomnia, a syndrom similar to narcolepsy, were DR2‐positive. We conclude that any polymorphism of the DRβ, DQα or DQβ, genes of DR2 narcoleptics that might distinguish them from DR2 nomals cannot be resolved through RELP analysis.