Korean J Med.  2000 Jan;58(1):91-101.

A study of HLA-DR polymorphism in four physical constitution groups classified by Korean traditional medicine

• Kwon TB
• Whang CW
• Sul IC
• Lee KO
• Hwang KY
• Yang DH
• Hong SY

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In Korean traditional medicine, human beings are classified into 4 groups accordance with the characteristics of physical constitution, named; Taeum, Taeyang, Soum, and Soyang. Most of Korean traditional doctors believe that the back ground of pathophysiology is differ among each group in many diseases. HLA is the most polymorphic gene and related with human immune response. It has been used for determination of individual identification, genetic diversity and a study of disease association in different ethnic group. It has well known that the most human inflammatory disease which thought to have some autoimmune basis are in some way promoted by genes of the HLA region. The purpose of this study is to observe the distribution of HLA-DR genotypes in 4 types of physical constitution in Korean traditional medicine.
METHODS
Three hundred and ten Korean subjects(Soyang : 58cases, Soum :142cases, Taeum : 92cases, Taeyang : 18cases) were enrolled for this study. Genomic DNAs extracted by phenol/chroloform were amplified with allele specific primers and determined by 2% agarose gel electrophoresis with ethidium bromide staining for analysis of HLA-DR polymorphism.
RESULTS
The genotype frequency of HLA-DR in a total or 310 Koreans was DR1 ; 7.2%, DR 2; 10.5%, DR 3;1.7%, DR 4; 19.9%, DR 5; 11.9%, DR 6;19.9%, DR 7; 7.0%, DR 8; 10.6%, DR 9; 8.7%, DR10;1.9%. There was no significant diffrence of HLA-DR genotype distribution among four physical constitution groups classified by Korean traditional medicine.
CONCLUSION
Our results suggest that the classification of physical constitution in Korean traditional medicine is not related to HLA-DR genotypes.

Keyword

HLA-DR; Gene; Physical constitution; Korean traditional medicine

MeSH Terms

Alleles
Classification
Constitution and Bylaws*
DNA
Electrophoresis, Agar Gel
Ethidium
Ethnic Groups
Genetic Variation
Genotype
HLA-DR Antigens*
Humans
Medicine, Korean Traditional*
DNA
Ethidium
HLA-DR Antigens