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ABSTRACr We report results of HLA-A, B, C, and DR typing in groups of white Caucasians of English descent and black West Indians of African descent with sarcoidosis. In the English patients we found a significantly increased frequency of Cw7, which was not found in the West Indian patients. Our results also suggest that DR3 and, in particular, inheritance of the B8/ Cw7/DR3 haplotype is associated with good prognosis in English patients with sarcoidosis.

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Summary Circulating lymphocyte numbers are elevated in horses with the allergic skin disease sweet itch and skin lesions are typified by an infiltrate of eosinophils and mononuclear cells, the latter of which have not been fully characterised. The aim of the present study was to characterise the lymphocyte subpopulations in the circulation and skin of ponies with sweet itch by flow cytometry and a newly developed modified alkaline phosphatase immunohistochemical technique. Sweet itch ponies were found to have significantly greater numbers of circulating CD5+ and CD4+ T‐lymphocytes than normal animals. Increased numbers of CD3+ T‐lymphocytes, most of which were CD4+, and eosinophils were present in the skin of these animals following intradermal injection of a Culicoides antigen extract (97 ± 21 vs. 449 ± 49 CD3+ T‐lymphocytes/mm2 in deep dermis of vehicle vs. antigen injected sites; 83 ± 8% CD4+ T‐lymphocytes at antigen injected site). T‐lymphocytes, which are thought to be important in the pathogenesis of human allergic skin disease, may therefore contribute to the development of sweet itch lesions via the release of cytokines which can cause eosinophil accumulation and activation. An understanding of the pathology of this disease may lead to a more rational approach to therapy.