Affiliations: CEVAREN, Université de Corse, Campus Grossetti,
20250 Corte, France | Cattedra di Genetica Medica, Università di
Cagliari, via San Giorgio 12, 09124 Cagliari, Italia | Centre Hospitalier Général d'Ajaccio,
20000 Ajaccio, France | Groupe Universitaire de Recherche en Immunologie et
Immunopathologie, EA 1257, Université Rennes I, 2 av. du AR. Léon
Bernard, 35 043 Rennes, France
Note: [] Correspondence: Dr Patricia Cucchi-Mouillot-CEVAREN,
Université de Corse, Campus Grossetti, 20250 Corte, France, Tel: 33 4 95
45 00 27, Fax: 33 4 95 61 05 51, E-mail: maury@univ-corse.fr
Abstract: The HLA-DM molecule catalyses the CLIP/antigen peptide exchange in
the classical class II peptide-binding groove. As such, DM is an antigen
presentation regulator and may be linked to autoimmune diseases. Using PCR
derived methods, a relationship was revealed between DM gene polymorphism and
IDDM, in a Corsican population. The DMA*0101 allele was observed to confer a
significant predisposition to this autoimmune disease while the DMA*0102 allele
protected significantly. Experiments examining polymorphism of the HLA-DRB1
gene established that these relationships are not a consequence of linkage
disequilibrium with HLA-DRB1 alleles implicated in this pathology. The study of
the DMA gene could therefore be an additional tool for early IDDM diagnosis in
the Corsican population.
