Primary biliary cirrhosis associated with HLA-DRw3.
Twenty-one unrelated Caucasian patients with Primary Biliary Cirrhosis were typed for HLA-A, B, C and HLA-DRw antigens. The antigens HLA-Al, HLA-B8 and HLA-DRw3 were found in increased frequency in relation to the control group. When the P values were corrected for the number of antigens tested only the increase of HLA-DRw3 remained significantly different from the control group (P crr. < 0.004). The antigen HLA-DRw3 was carried by 12 out of 21 patients (57.1%) in comparison to 11 out of 74 (14.8%) normal unrelated Caucasian subjects.