The prevalence of HLA-DR4 and HLA-DR3 in healthy persons with rheumatoid factor

Abstract

The frequency of the HLA antigen DR4 has been determined in healthy individuals with serum IgM RF. HLA DR4 was found in 11.6% of these persons as compared with 27% in healthy controls. Thus, no association between IgM RF and HLA-DR4 could be found in this material of healthy individuals. HLA-DR3 was found in 35% of healthy RF-positive persons, which was no different from the 30% prevalence among healthy controls. HLA-DR3 did not seem to be associated with high immune responsiveness of RF in RF-positive individuals.