The role of polymorphic variants HLA-DRB1* in development of congenital heart diseases

Risk factors of congenital heart disease (CHD) remain unclear. Here we investigated the association of the polymorphisms within the HLA-DRB1* alleles and CHD. We recruited 97 females and 59 males who had children with CHD. Genotyping was performed by allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. HLA-DRB1*03 and HLA-DRB1*11 were associated with a high risk (р=0.0007 and 0.0036, respectively). We concluded that the polymorphisms of the HLA genes may be associated with CHD.