Tissue Antigens (1976), 217-220
NEWSLETTER
Published by Munksgaard, Copenhagen, Denmark N o part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the author(s)
HLA Antigens in Schizophrenia Dagmar Ivanyi, Pave1 Zemek and Pavol Ivanyi Dental Research Institute, Prague; Psychiatric Clinic, Medical School, Charles University, Prague; and Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechoslovakia Received for publication 20 April, accepted 9 June 1976
Significant associations were found between a number of HLA antigens and various diseases. The majority of these diseases do not have a clear etiopathogenesis, and familial occurrence with a confused type of heredity - mostly presumed to be multifactorial - is their only common denominator. The etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia is unknown but some of the factors linked with the histocompatibility systems (Bodmer i972, McDevitt & Bodmer 1974, Ivanyi & Forejt 1974, Ivanyi 1975) have already been mentioned in connection with the etiology of schizophrenia. Furthermore, the participation of hereditary factors in schizophrenia can be taken as proven. Even though there are several alternative hypotheses on the mode of inheritance, recent data of Karlsson (1974) give support to the presence of a dominantly transmitted principal gene in schizophrenia. In this situation, it seemed reasonable to examine the HLA phenotype in a relatively large group of patients hospitalized with the diagnosis of schizophrenia (SCH). We tested 148 male patients, aged 6-78 years (mean age: 43*13.7), hospitalized at the Psychiatric Clinic of Charles University
and at a number of other mental hospitals in Prague. It is known to be difficult to arrive at the final diagnosis in schizophrenia which probably represents a heterogenous ethiopathogenetic group. Notably this diagnosis is applied more or less frequently by different psychiatric schools. The criteria in Czechoslovakia are known in general to be more restricted. All o u r patients were examined by a number of specialists and only those who fitted in with the final diagnosis of schizophrenia were included in this study. HLA serotyping was performed by the two step microlymphocytotoxicity test (Terasaki & McClelland 1964), using a set of highly selected mono or oligospecific antiHLA sera three to six for each specificity). The control group comprised 1,200 healthy individuals from the same geographic area who were HLA serotyped in the same laboratory (IvaSkova & Ivanyi, unpublished data). The frequency of 23 HLA antigens in 148 SCH patients and 1,200 healthy individuals is given in Table 1 . The distribution of HLA antigens in the control population is essentially the same as reported from Vienna
218
IVANYI E T AL
(Mayr 1975) and Slovakia (Nyulassy et al. 1974, and personal communication) which can be taken as the populations closest to our control group. In SCH patients, a significant increase of HLA-A28 was found ( P
NEWSLETTER
Published by Munksgaard, Copenhagen, Denmark N o part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the author(s)
HLA Antigens in Schizophrenia Dagmar Ivanyi, Pave1 Zemek and Pavol Ivanyi Dental Research Institute, Prague; Psychiatric Clinic, Medical School, Charles University, Prague; and Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechoslovakia Received for publication 20 April, accepted 9 June 1976
Significant associations were found between a number of HLA antigens and various diseases. The majority of these diseases do not have a clear etiopathogenesis, and familial occurrence with a confused type of heredity - mostly presumed to be multifactorial - is their only common denominator. The etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia is unknown but some of the factors linked with the histocompatibility systems (Bodmer i972, McDevitt & Bodmer 1974, Ivanyi & Forejt 1974, Ivanyi 1975) have already been mentioned in connection with the etiology of schizophrenia. Furthermore, the participation of hereditary factors in schizophrenia can be taken as proven. Even though there are several alternative hypotheses on the mode of inheritance, recent data of Karlsson (1974) give support to the presence of a dominantly transmitted principal gene in schizophrenia. In this situation, it seemed reasonable to examine the HLA phenotype in a relatively large group of patients hospitalized with the diagnosis of schizophrenia (SCH). We tested 148 male patients, aged 6-78 years (mean age: 43*13.7), hospitalized at the Psychiatric Clinic of Charles University
and at a number of other mental hospitals in Prague. It is known to be difficult to arrive at the final diagnosis in schizophrenia which probably represents a heterogenous ethiopathogenetic group. Notably this diagnosis is applied more or less frequently by different psychiatric schools. The criteria in Czechoslovakia are known in general to be more restricted. All o u r patients were examined by a number of specialists and only those who fitted in with the final diagnosis of schizophrenia were included in this study. HLA serotyping was performed by the two step microlymphocytotoxicity test (Terasaki & McClelland 1964), using a set of highly selected mono or oligospecific antiHLA sera three to six for each specificity). The control group comprised 1,200 healthy individuals from the same geographic area who were HLA serotyped in the same laboratory (IvaSkova & Ivanyi, unpublished data). The frequency of 23 HLA antigens in 148 SCH patients and 1,200 healthy individuals is given in Table 1 . The distribution of HLA antigens in the control population is essentially the same as reported from Vienna
218
IVANYI E T AL
(Mayr 1975) and Slovakia (Nyulassy et al. 1974, and personal communication) which can be taken as the populations closest to our control group. In SCH patients, a significant increase of HLA-A28 was found ( P
