Sequence‐specific oligonucleotide typing in Shona patients with rheumatoid arthritis and healthy controls from Zimbabwe

Seventy‐two patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 82 controls have been typed with the XI Histocompatibility Workshop DRB1 and DQB1 sequence‐specific oligonucleotide probes. The increase of DRB1*04 corresponds to an increase of the serologically defined DR4, previously found in a small group of Zimbabwean RA patients and we now show that this increase is due to the subtype DRB1*0405 in association with DQB1*0302. In addition there is a clearcut increase of DRB1*1001 equivalent to the serologically defined DR10. There was no increase amongst RA patients of DRB1*0102 which was the predominant DR1 sub‐type amongst controls. In the course of our investigation, we observed a DRB1*04 variant which corresponds to DRB1*0412, newly defined in the XIth Histocompatibility Workshop. 1993 Blackwell Munksgaard