METHODS: Consecutive biopsy-proven NAFLD patients (n = 191) and healthy controls (n = 188) were enrolled and genotyped for HLA-DQA1 and HLA-DQB1 alleles using the sequence-specific oligonucleotide-polymerase chain reaction method.
RESULTS: No association was found between the HLA alleles and NAFLD or NASH in a case-control setting. Nevertheless, among NAFLD patients, the frequency of HLA-DQB1*06 allele was significantly the lowest in NASH with significant fibrosis (10.4%) and approximately similar for NASH without significant fibrosis (22.9%) and NAFL (22.5%) (P = 0.004). It is noteworthy that the association remains significant after correction for multiple comparisons (Pc = 0.04). Multivariate analysis revealed that HLA-DQB1*06 allele is also associated with fibrosis score (P = 0.001); the result remains significant after correction for multiple comparisons.
CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that HLA-DQB1*06 is associated with lower fibrosis score in NAFLD patients.