In a subpopulation analysis, DRB3*01:01:02-DQA1*05:01-DQB1*02:01 remained the most significant in patients with Scandinavian ethnicity (RR = 4.63; P < .0001) whereas DRB1*07:01:01-DRB4*01:03:01-DQA1*02:01-DQB1*02:02:01 presented the highest risk of celiac disease among non-Scandinavians (RR = 7.94; P = .011).
We selected 38 consecutive celiac disease (CD) patients (from a group of 316 consecutive CD patients) and 91 healthy blood donors, all of whom were HLA-DQ2 (DQA1*0501/DQB1*0201) negative, and investigated the presence of the classically associated alleles HLA-DQ8 and HLA-DRB4.
The fact that half of our DQ2-negative patients lack DRB4 (DR53) leads us to believe that this gene is not an essential factor to confer CD susceptibility.