HLA and Mycobacterial Infection: Increased Frequency of B8 in Japanese Leprosy*

Abstract
Sixty leprosy patients (28 of lepromatous and 32 of tuberculoid form) and 70 active tuberculosis patients were compared with a control of 184 for 34 HLA specificities. There was an increased frequency (10.0%) for HLA-B8 (corrected P = 0.062, relative risk = 20.3) in the leprosy patients as compared with the control group, despite the fact that the frequency of HLA-B8 was extremely low in Japanese. All leprosy patients with B8 had leprous member(s) in their family.