Mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) is an autoimmune mucosal scarring disease having severe ocular morbidity [1]. Disease susceptibility is associated with increased frequencies of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DQB1*03:01, HLA-DRB1*11, and HLA-DRB1*04 and decreased frequencies of DQB1*02 [2]. To explore correlations between clinical involvement and HLA-class-II alleles, we prospectively phenotyped a cohort of 55 British MMP patients, and 41 age/sex-matched controls (ethics approval reference 09/H0721/54).

Inclusion criteria have been described [3] and were pre-agreed clinical criteria with or without a positive direct immunofluorescence (DIF) study. HLA-typing used allele-specific sequencing protocols (Protrans S3 HLA-DRB1* and HLA-DQB1* Cyclerstrips, Protrans, Hockenheim, Germany). Statistical analysis used Fisher’s exact test (p), with Benjamini–Hochberg correction (pc) defined as significant when pc < 0.05.

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