HLA study on two Mexican Mestizo families with autoimmune thyroid disease.

Several studies have been done regarding the genetic susceptibility to autoimmune thyroid disease, particularly those related to the role of Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes in the etiology of the disease. In the present study, we report class I and class II MHC haplotypes in nine individuals affected by Hashimoto thyroiditis and Graves' disease who belong to two distinct Mexican families. In one of the families, Hashimoto thyroiditis was associated with the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) HLA-DR3 allele whereas in the other family the disease was associated with homozygosity for the HLA-DR4 (DRB1*0407), HLA-DQ3 (DQB1*0302) haplotype. On the other hand, Graves' disease was found to be associated in one of the families with HLA-DR2 (DRB1*1501) and in the other with homozygosity for the HLA-DR7 (DRB*0701) and HLA-DQ2 (DQB1*0201) haplotype. These results confirm that in Mexicans as in other ethnic groups, genes located within the MHC region are related to the genetic susceptibility to develop autoimmune thyroid disease.