HLA and Sjögren's syndrome susceptibility. A meta-analysis of worldwide studies.

The aim of this work was to identify common HLA Class II alleles contributing to primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) susceptibility worldwide and to analyze their biological implications through a binding prediction approach of peptides from major pSS auto-antigens. Case-control studies on HLA-DQ and HLA-DR in pSS were searched in various literature databases through April 2011 by a systematic review. The effect summary odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were obtained by means of the random effect model.