Lamotrigine-Related Skin Side Effects Were Associated with some HLA-B Alleles in Iranian Epileptic Patients

Background: Recent evidences revealed that some genetic factors strongly predict occurrence of lamotrigine (LTG)-related skin reactions. The present study aimed to assess the association between some human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B alleles and risk of LTG-related skin reactions among a sample of epileptic patients. Methods: Totally, 36 epileptic patients expressing LTG-related skin reactions and 70 sex- and age-matched healthy individuals were enrolled into this case-control study. Blood samples were collected from all participants and genomic DNA was extracted by salting-out method. HLA-B alleles were determined using standard sequence specific primer-PCR (SSP-PCR) technique. Results: Of the 31 HLA alleles assessed in our survey, the frequencies of HLA-B*38 and HLA-B*40 were significantly higher in epileptic patients with LTG-related skin reactions when compared to the control group. In term of gender, the frequency of HLA-B*40 allele was significantly higher in the epileptic men with LTG-related skin reactions, whereas the frequency of HLA-B*38 allele was significantly higher in the epileptic women with LTG-related skin reactions than controls with the same gender. Moreover, the frequency of HLA-B*38 allele in patients with high grade of LTG-related skin side effects was significantly higher than patients with low grade of LTG-related skin side effects. Conclusion: These results indicated possible association between HLA-B*40 and HLA-B*38 alleles and LTG-induced skin lesions in Iranian epileptic patients. HLA-B*40 and HLA-B*38 alleles might be differentially expressed in male and female epileptic patients with LTG-induced skin lesions.