HLA and disease

Association of HLA and diseases is well known. Several population studies are available suggesting evidence of association of HLAs in more than 40 diseases. HLA found across various populations vary widely. Some of the reasons attributed for such variation are occurrence of social stratification based on geography, language and religion, consequences of founder effect, racial admixture or selection pressure due to environmental factors. Hence certain HLA alleles that are predominantly associated with disease susceptibility or resistance in one population may or may not show any association in other populations for the same disease. Despite of these limitations, HLA associations are widely studied across the populations worldwide and are found to be important in prediction of disease susceptibility, resistance and of evolutionary maintenance of genetic diversity. This review consolidates the HLA data on some prominent autoimmune and infectious diseases among various ethnic groups and attempts to pinpoint differences in Indian and other population.