Background Behçet disease (BD) is a system inflammatory disease mostly characterized by oral and genital ulcers and variable manifestations affecting other organs, mainly skin and eye. The HLA class I molecule HLA-B*51 allele is strongly associated with BD in many different ethnic groups and appears to be a significant risk factor for BD in the ancient Silk Route areas in contrast with Western and Northern Europe and U.S.^1–4

Objectives Our purpose was to show the frequency of presence of HLA-B*51 allele in Armenian patients with BD and estimate any correlation with common symptoms of disease depended on presence of HLA-B*51.

Methods Forty-seven patients of Armenian origin (28 males 59.6% and 19 females 40.4%) fulfilling the International Criteria for BD (ICBD) with mean age 29.7±11.3 years; disease duration – 5.3±12.4 years were enrolled. We observed the clinical manifestations of BD of both HLA-B*51 carriers and non-carriers.

Results HLA-B*51 was detected in 38 (80.8%) patients, of whom 25 male and 13 female (65.8% and 34.2%, respectively). Arthritis, erythema nodosum and genital ulcers were significantly more common in HLA-B*51-positive patients (83.3%, 83.3% and 80.6% respectively) than in HLA-B*51-negative ones (16.7%, p=0.032, 16.7% p=0.032 and 19.4% p=0.023 respectively).

Conclusions In this ever first estimation of HLA-B*51 gene frequency in patients with BD in Armenia, our results indicated that the frequency of HLA-B*51 allele in BD is 80.8% which is higher than elsewhere (in Japan 58.9%, Iran 61.9%, Turkey 75%, Saudi Arabia 76.9% Greece 78.9%)⁵. Furthermore, this investigation revealed HLA-B*51 carriage much more often in male than in female BD patients. In addition HLA-B*51 carriers are in significant higher risk of development of arthritis, erythema nodosum and genital ulcers.

References

1. Ohno S, Aoki K, Sugiura S at al (1973) Letter. HLA 5and Behçet disease. Lancet 2:1383 – 1384.

2. Ohno S, Ohguchi M, Hirose S et al (1982) Close association of HLA Bw51 with Behçet disease. Arch Ophthalmol 100:1455–1458.

3. de Menthon M, Lavalley MP, Maldini C et al (2009) HLA-B51/B5 and the risk of Behçet disease: A systemic review and meta-analysis of case-control genetic association studies. Arthritis Rheum 61:1287–1296.

4. Gul A, Ohno S (2012) HLA-B*51and Behçet disease. Ocul Immunol Inflamm 20:37–43.

5. Yoshiaki Ishigatsubo. Behçet disease: from Genetics to Therapies. Springer 2015: 42–43.

References

Disclosure of Interest None declared