Human Leukocyte Antigen and its Association with Celiac Disease and Associated Autoimmune Diseases

Abstract

Introduction: Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) is a crucial component for the regulation of human immune systems. Celiac disease (CeD) is a gluten dependent multifactorial disorder with a strong association with HLA-DQ alleles. HLA-DQ alleles are also have role in Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS), Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH), and CeD associated autoimmune diseases like Type 1 diabetes (T1D), Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Multiple sclerosis (MS). However, contribution of HLA in all these diseases is not fully understood. We aimed to provide a concise information about the HLA status in these autoimmune diseases.

Methodology: We explored already published articles having information about HLA in autoimmune diseases in relation to CeD from different scientific platforms. We filtered the HLA data from them. We included original and review articles and excluded articles which had only clinical information, and case reports.

Results: We found that HLA alleles have strong association in the development of CeD and other autoimmune diseases. HLA-B1*02 is the most critical allele associated with the susceptibility to CeD and also have major role in other gluten related disorders (GRD).

Conclusions: We concluded that although HLA has a major role in the autoimmune disease development, multiple unknown non-HLA genes are also critically involved and must be explored frantically.