Antigen, allele, and haplotype frequencies report of the ASHI minority antigens workshops: part 1, African-Americans.

HLA typing was performed on 977 African Americans residing throughout most of the United States. Class I and class II antigens and class II alleles were defined for all individuals and class I alleles were determined for a subset of individuals. The occurrence of 854 of the individuals in family groups permitted direct counting of allele and haplotype frequencies.

Human leukocyte antigens and cytokine expression in cerebral inflammatory demyelinative lesions of X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy and multiple sclerosis.

The two most common forms of X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) are the cerebral forms (CER) with an inflammatory demyelinating reaction that resembles multiple sclerosis, and adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN) which involves primarily the spinal cord and in which the inflammatory reaction is mild or absent. We found no significant association between the childhood cerebral form (CCER) or AMN and the human leukocyte (HLA) class I and Class II antigens including the class II DR2 haplotypes associated with multiple sclerosis. Inflammatory cytokine (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1 beta, interleukin-4, interleukin-6 and interferon-gamma) gene expression was increased in multiple sclerosis brain lesions, as has been reported previously, but much less so in CER brain lesions.

Career development for women in academic medicine: Multiple interventions in a department of medicine.

Objective: To determine the gender-based career obstacles for women in an academic department of medicine and to report the interventions to correct such obstacles (resulting from the evaluation) and the results of these interventions.

Design: Intervention study, before-after trial, with assessment of faculty concerns and perceived change through structured, self-administered questionnaires.

Setting: The Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md.

Increased prevalence of systemic sclerosis in a Native American tribe in Oklahoma. Association with an Amerindian HLA haplotype.

Objective: To investigate a high prevalence of systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma) in a well-defined population of 21,255 Choctaw Indians residing in 8 southeastern Oklahoma counties who were "users" of Indian Health Services.

Methods: A case-control study of 12 SSc cases and 48 matched non-SSc controls (4 per case) was conducted to investigate potential occupational, residential, and infectious exposures, as well as genetic factors which might predispose to SSc. HLA class II alleles were determined by DNA oligotyping, and class I and III alleles were defined serologically.