P001 ASSOCIATION OF CHRONIC OLIGOARTHRITIS WITH HLA CLASS II ALLELES: DRB1, DQB1 AND DQA1 IN BULGARIAN CHILDREN

HLA class II alleles (DRB1, DQB1 and DQA1) were investigated in 20 Bulgarian children (12 girls and 8 boys) with Juvenile chronic idiopathic oligoarthritis. Our patients are in age from 1.5 to 12 years (mean age 5.2 years). All they have minimal or moderate inflammatory activity based on clinical symptoms, ESR, CRP, RF-negative. Eight of the patients (all girls) have chronic anterior uveitis and positive ANA. In evolution of 1.5 to 2 years the patients remained in oligoarthritic type of JIA. The control group included 130 unrelated healthy individuals from the Bulgarian population without family history of autoimmune disease. Genomic DNA from JIA children and the controls was extracted from whole venous blood using the standard salting-out method. HLA-DRB1,-DQB1 and –DQA1 genotyping was performed by PCR-SSP method. 13 HLA-DRB1, 6 DQB1 and 10 DQA1 allele groups were found in the patients and controls. Statistically significant predisposing association was established for DRB1*08 (OR=4.02, p<0.05), DQB1*04 (OR=3.50, p<0.05) and DQA1*0401 (OR=4.02, p<0.05). Although no difference in allele association was observed in children with and without eye involvement, in these with chronic anterior uveitis the frequency of alleles mentioned was higher. These alleles show strong linkage disequilibrium and the same association has been found in all clinical types of JIA within the 12th IHWCS . Conclusion: Our data confirm predisposing JCA associations found in other Caucasian populations. Since the same HLA class II association was found in children with and without eye uveitis, patients without eye involvement are not safeguarded against development of uveitis. # P002. DECREASE IN CELLULARITY AND CYTOKINE EXPRESSION BY AUTOLOGOUS STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION (ASCT) IN PATIENTS WITH JUVENILE IDIOPATHIC ARTHRITIS (JIA) {#article-title-2} Objective: ASCT has been used as an experimental treatment in refractory JIA. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of ASCT at the site of inflammation. Therefore, we examined the changes in the cellular infiltrate and the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the synovium in …