Background: A genetically determined resistance or susceptibility to chronic hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) may make an important contribution to the course of liver disease and may be linked to the human major histocompatibility complex.
Design: Twenty-one subjects with self-limited HCV infection as assessed by the presence of HCV antibodies, absence of HCV-RNA and normal levels of aminotransferases for 2 years were identified from a large pool of blood donors. The frequency of HLA serotypes of these individuals was compared with 49 consecutive patients with chronic hepatitis C.
Results: We detected a significantly higher prevalence of HLA-DR15 in patients with self-limited HCV infection than in patients with chronic hepatitis C (10/21 vs. 6/49; relative risk 6.5; P = 0.02; corrected for multiple comparisons). To confirm HLA assignments by serotyping we also performed sequencing of HLA-DR types in the 27 patients (9 with self-limited infection, 18 with chronic hepatitis C) who had been enrolled during 1995-96. This analysis confirmed the predominance of HLA-DR15 (HLA-DRB1*15011) in self-limited HCV infection (4/9 vs. 1/18; relative risk 13.6; P = 0.03).
Conclusions: Our data suggest that HLA-DR15 (B1*15011) might constitute an important genetic factor for the elimination of the hepatitis C virus in Germany.