Thesis (MTech (Medical Technology))--Cape Technikon, 1996. / Intensive investigations in many different populations over the last decade, have indicated a
failure to understand the inheritance of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It was hoped that genes within
the class II region of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) could shed some light on the
inheritance of this autoimmune disease and which are now known without doubt, to confer
susceptibility to the disease. Genetic studies of RA have concentrated primarily on its
autoimmune nature and several investigations of MHC class II molecules, have demonstrated an
association between specific HLA alleles and susceptibility to RA, in particular the DRB1 *04
and DRB1 *01 alleles.
The HLA system is known to be associated with many diseases involving an immune aetiology.
The structural features of specific DR and DQ genes give clues to the molecular mechanisms by
which these alleles are associated with RA. It has been found by many investigators that there is
more than one susceptibility allele for RA at the DRB1 locus.
Questions arise whether the DRB1 molecule itself directly contributes to the pathogenesis of RA
and why some DRB1 genes carrying DRBI *04 alleles, are not associated with RA.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cput/oai:localhost:20.500.11838/2249 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Pokorny, Ljubica |
| Contributors | Truter, E. J. |
| Publisher | Cape Technikon |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/za/ |
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