Objective: To determine whether genetic factors may work in concert with autoimmune factors in the pathogenesis of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS).
Methods: We determined the differences in the distribution of HLA alleles between GBS patients and normal controls. HLA-DQA, -DQB and -DRB alleles were typed by the sequence specific primer polymerase chain reaction (PCR-SSP) methods in 47 GBS, 7 patients with Campylobacter jejuni (CJ) enteritis and 50 normal controls.
Results: There were no differences in the frequency of HLA-DQA, -DQB and -DRB among GBS group, CJ group, normal controls and GBS subgroups with respect to recent CJ infection, GM1 IgG and GM1 IgM antibodies (P > 0.05). There was an increasing tendency of DQA1 * 0301 (P = 0.056, RR = 2.991) in the subgroup with GM1 IgG antibodies and DQA1 * 0302 (P = 0.087, RR = 3.587) in the subgroup with recent CJ infection. No difference was found among GBS, CJ enteritis patients and normal controls.
Conclusions: The increasing tendency of the two alleles suggests that there may be some relation between genetic factors and immunological factors, but a definite conclusion waits for more cases.