Unbalanced amounts of HLA-DQA1 allele mRNA: DQA1*03 shows high and DQA1*0501 low amounts of mRNA in heterozygous individuals

Genes of the HLA-DR, DQ region confer strong susceptibility to type 1 diabetes mellitus (IDDM). A possible mechanism of susceptibility is a difference in the amounts of transcripts of predisposing and neutral or protective haplotypes. In this study we developed an assay to compare the amounts of mRNA of two distinct HLA-DQA1 alleles in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) of heterozygous individuals, using a quantitative RT PCR with an internal standard covering all HLA-DQA1 specifities. We also developed an algorithm to calculate the amounts of mRNA for two distinct alleles in heterozygous individuals based on the comparison to the same internal standard. In total, 37 HLA-DQA1 heterozygous individuals were analysed, including patients with IDDM (n = 14) and healthy controls (n = 23). Intra-individually, we observed different amounts of mRNA for different HLA-DQA1 alleles in the order: HLA-DQA1*03 > *01 > *0201 > *05. This order was observed in all individuals. We also observed a variation in the ratio of these unbalanced amounts of mRNA in individuals with the same HLA-DQA1 allele combinations. In all allele combinations the average ratio was increased in patients with IDDM compared to the control samples. HLA-DQA1*03 positive and DQAl*03, *05 heterozygous patients had the highest average ratios. Nevertheless, based on limited sample numbers, these differences did not reach significance. We therefore conclude that variations between HLA-DQA1 alleles are not limited to the nucleotide sequence but are also found at the level of amounts of mRNA.