Objective: To study the possibility of a correlation between occurrence of endometriosis (EM) and polymorphism of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DRB1 allele.
Methods: Polymorphism of HLA-DRB1 allele were detected by polymerase chain reaction- sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) testing 40 surgically proven EM patients and 50 normal control.
Results: At HLA-DRB1 15 allele, positive frequency of EM group was significant higher as compared with those of the normal control group [45.0% vs 26.0%, P < 0.05, relative risk (RR) = 2.1]. Other HLA-DRB1 allele positive frequency of EM group and control group had no significant difference. But for Polymorphism of DRB1 * 15 allele, positive frequency of EM group and control group had no significant difference [1501 : 35.0% vs 20.0%; 1502 : 10.0% vs 6.0%; P > 0.05].
Conclusions: The occurrence of EM may be associated with the presence of HLA-DRB1 allele, but hasn't associated about polymorphism of DRB1* 15 allele. HLA-DRB1 * 15 maybe one of some factors for the pathogenesis of endometriosis.