Endocrinol Diabetes Nutr. 2017;64(3):146---151 www.elsevier.es/endo Endocrinología, Diabetes y Nutrición ORIGINAL ARTICLE Is HLA the cause of the high incidence of type 1 diabetes in the Canary Islands? Results from the Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium (T1DGC) Angelo Santana del Pino a , Nathan Medina-Rodríguez b , Marta Hernández-García c,d , Francisco J. Nóvoa-Mogollón e,f , Ana M. Wägner e,f,* , for the Spanish Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Network, T1DGC 1 a Mathematics and Statistics Dept, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain b Instituto Universitario de Microelectrónica Aplicada, ULPGC, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain c Endocrinology Dept, Hospital Universitari Arnau de Vilanova, Lleida, Spain d Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Lleida (IRB Lleida), Lleida, Spain e Endocrinology Dept, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario Insular Materno-Infantil, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain f Instituto Universitario de Investigaciones Biomédicas y Sanitarias, ULPGC, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain Received 26 September 2016; accepted 6 December 2016 Available online 16 February 2017 KEYWORDS Genetics; Type 1 diabetes mellitus; Epidemiology; Major histocompatibility complex; Haplotype; Human leucocyte antigen Abstract Introduction: Incidence of childhood-onset type 1 diabetes mellitus in the Canary Islands is the highest reported so far in Spain, and among the highest worldwide. The HLA region accounts for approximately half the genetic risk of type 1 diabetes. Our aim was to assess distribution of high-risk and protective HLA haplotypes in the Canarian families included in the T1DGC, as compared to the rest of Spain. Methods: The T1DGC study, an international project to study the genetics and pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes, enrolled more than 3000 families with type 1 diabetes worldwide. Spain provided 149 of these families, of whom 42 were from Tenerife and Gran Canaria. HLA was genotyped centrally using a PCR-based, sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe system. Hap- lotypes were reconstructed using the deterministic algorithm alleHap in the R programming environment. Based on prior T1DGC results in Caucasian population, haplotypes DRB1*0405- DQA1*0301-DQB1*0302, DRB1*0401-DQA1*0301-DQB1*0302, DRB1*0301-DQA1*0501-DQB1*0201, DRB1*0402-DQA1*0301-DQB1*0302 and DRB1*0404-DQA1*0301-DQB1*0302 were considered * Corresponding author. E-mail address: ana.wagner@ulpgc.es (A.M. Wägner). 1 See members in Appendix A. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.endinu.2016.12.003 2530-0164/© 2017 SEEN. Published by Elsevier Espa˜ na, S.L.U. All rights reserved. Document downloaded from http://www.elsevier.es, day 18/03/2018. This copy is for personal use. Any transmission of this document by any media or format is strictly prohibited. Document downloaded from http://www.elsevier.es, day 18/03/2018. This copy is for personal use. Any transmission of this document by any media or format is strictly prohibited.