In order to investigate the association of genotypes of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 alleles with the genetic susceptibility of chronic urticaria (CU), genotypes of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 genes were detected by polymerase chain reactions with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) in 42 patients with CU (19 men and 23 women, mean age 30.67±12.45 y old as well as 193 racially matched healthy persons in ethnic Han from Hubei provinece. Gene frequencies of HLA-DRB1*12, *0901 (RR=3.11, χ2=7.579, P=0.006; RR=2.47, χ2=5.684, P=0.017) were significantly increased in CU patients as compared with that in healthy people. Gene frequencies of HLA-DQB1*05 (RR=0.26, χ2=6.683, P=0.01) were significantly decreased in CU patients. It was suggested that CU was found strongly associated with HLA-DRB1*12, *0901 and HLA-DQB1*05, the former might be the genetic markers for susceptibility to CU, but the latter might play a resistive role.
