Histocompatibility Antigens and Geographic Tongue

The HLA-A, B and HLA-DR antigens were investigated in 50 unrelated Greek persons with geographic tongue and in 380 healthy control persons. An increased incidence of DR5 and DRW6 antigens was observed in the blood of persons with geographic tongue. Ten (20%) of them had the DRW6 antigen, and it was significantly increased compared with 29 (7.6%) of the controls (p < 0.01, RR = 3.32). Twenty-seven (54%) of the experimental group showed DR5 antigen compared with 136 (35.7%) of the controls (p < 0.025, RR = 2.18). On the contrary, only 12% (5) of the experimental group had the B51 antigen in comparison with the controls (26.3%) (p < 0.05, RR = 0.37). A decrease of the DR2 antigen was also found in the persons with geographic tongue (24%) in comparison with the controls (39.2%) (p < 0.05, RR = 0.58).