Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) is a neurodegenerative disorder of unknown aetiology. Several antigens have been associated with IPD using serological methods. We systematically analysed HLA class I and II alleles in 45 German Caucasian IPD patients using sequence-specific oligonucleotides and sequence-specific primer technology. Applying Bonferroni adjusted p values, we demonstrate a statistically significant increase of the DQB1*06 allele (p = 0.002) in IPD which may indicate an association between IPD and the immune system. Alternatively, HLA alleles might be in linkage disequilibrium with genes located next to the HLA locus.
Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel