Evidence that celiac disease is primarily associated with a DC locus allelic specificity.

Sixty patients with celiac disease were typed by radioimmunoassay for the specificities HLA-DR3, HLA-DR7, and for an allelic specificity, DC3, of the HLA-associated DC locus. We found that celiac disease is primarily associated with the DC determinant. The previously described associations with DR3, DR7, B8, B13, and A1 can be explained by decreasing degrees of linkage disequilibrium with DC3.