BACKGROUND: The relationship between HLA-DRB1 alleles and asthma is controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between HLA-DRB1 alleles and risk of asthma.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: We searched PubMed, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan Fang (Chinese) database, and Chinese Biomedical Medical databases (CBM) to find studies on the relationship between HLA-DRB1 alleles and risk of asthma. We calculated the pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) using STATA 12.0. Finally, a total of 24 studies were included in this meta-analysis.

RESULTS: The results revealed that DRB1*03 was positively associated with risk of asthma (OR=1.51, 95%CI=1.27–1.80), and DRB1*15 was negatively associated with risk of asthma (OR=0.63, 95%CI=0.42–0.93), but no association was found in other HLA-DRB1 alleles. Subgroup analysis by age revealed that DRB1*03, DRB1*04, DRB1*09, and DRB1*15 were associated with asthma in children. Subgroup analysis by ethnicity showed that DRB1*03 and DRB1*15 were associated with asthma in whites, and DRB1*07 and DRB1*14 were associated with asthma in Asians.

CONCLUSIONS: This results of this meta-analysis suggest that HLA-DRB1 alleles are associated with asthma.

Keywords: Anti-Asthmatic Agents, HLA Antigens, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide