The Association of HLA with Juvenile Diabetes Mellitus in Newfoundland

Abstract

In view of the reported variation in the association between HLA antigens and juvenile diabetes mellitus (JDM) among different Caucasian populations, a study was undertaken of these antigens among 44 Caucasian Newfoundlanders and 135 matched controls. The allotypic markers for immunoglobulin G(Gm) and variants of C3 [complement component 3] among 36 of these patients were studied. HLA-B8 and B15 were increased among the patient group, resulting in a relative risk of 3.9 and 4.4, respectively. While these values are the highest to be described for JDM among Caucasians, and fell outside the 95% confidence intervals for the combined relative risk calculated from published series, it is still possible that they can be accounted for by sampling. The combination of the 2 antigens increased the relative risk for JDM in an additive fashion. The combination of HLA B8 and B18, but not B15 and B18, also appeared to act in an additive manner. The incidence of Gm allotypes and variants of C3 were not different in the JDM group from those observed among controls.