HL-A W27 — A Clue to the Diagnosis and Pathogenesis of Reiter's Syndrome

RECENTLY, an extraordinary correlation between the second-segregant series histocompatibility antigen (HL-A), W27, and a well characterized rheumatic disease, ankylosing spondylitis was reported.1 , 2 Indeed, 90 per cent of patients with the disease are W27 positive. Because ankylosing spondylitis has a strong heredofamilial distribution,3 and since the second-segregant series of HL-A antigens in certain animals is linked to immune-response genes,4 this highly important association suggests that the pathogenesis of the disease might be directly related to some aberrant, genetically controlled, cellular immune response.Reiter's syndrome is a puzzling disease with several features in common with ankylosing spondylitis — i.e., male predominance, young . . .