The roles of HLA genes relevant to gene therapy for human melanoma.

目前尚不清楚HLA抗原是否与日本的恶性黑色素瘤有关。肢端雀斑样痣性黑色素瘤（ALM）可能发生在日本人中，但在高加索人中不常见。为了阐明与黑色素瘤发展相关的HLA基因的参与，我们通过使用从58名不相关的日本黑色素瘤患者（20名结节性黑色素瘤（NM），20名ALM，9名浅表扩散性黑色素瘤，4名恶性雀斑样黑色素瘤，4名膜源性黑色素瘤和1名转移性黑色素瘤）获得的外周血淋巴细胞进行了HLA群体调查。结果表明，黑色素瘤与HLA-B13（p<0.0001）和Cw 6（p<0.03）有很强的相关性。在NM中HLA-B13的频率极高。在ALM中观察到HLA-B51的频率增加（9/20=45（%）对正常对照中的15/120=13（%））。与此相反，其频率在NM中极低（1/20=5（%））。HLA-B61在所有黑色素瘤中均降低。因此，HLA连锁的免疫应答或免疫抑制基因似乎有助于对人类黑素瘤的易感性。NM和ALM之间可能存在遗传差异。

It has not been clear whether HLA antigens are associated with malignant melanoma in Japan. Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) may occur in Japanese but is uncommon in Caucasians. In order to elucidate involvement of HLA genes relevant to development of melanoma, we performed an HLA population survey, by using peripheral blood lymphocytes obtained from 58 unrelated Japanese patients with melanoma (20 nodular melanoma (NM) , 20 ALM,9 superficial spreading melanoma, 4 lentigo maligna melanoma, 4 melanoma derived from the membrane and 1 metastatic melanoma) . The results showed that there was a strong association between melanoma and HLA-B13 (p<0.0001) and Cw6 (p<0.03) . In NM,the frequency of HLA-B13 was extremely high. An increased frequency of HLA-B51 was seen in ALM (9/20=45 (%) vs 15/120=13 (%) in normal control) . In contrast, its frequency in NM was extremely decreased (1/20=5 (%) ) . HLA-B61 was decreased in a total of the melanomas. Thus, HLA-linked immune response or immune suppression gene (s) appear to contribute to the susceptibility to human melanoma. There might be genetic differences between NM and ALM.