β2 microglobulin, HLA-A and Notch4 were all expressed in a pattern where inflammatory illness was associated with increased expression in controls but not in subjects with schizophrenia.
While searching for the "true" disease gene near the HLA-A gene, we discovered that homozygosity of the HLA-J M80469 pseudogene allele, in combination with HLA-A10 or HLA-A9, was associated with a high risk of schizophrenia (HLA-A10 relative risk = 29.33, p = 0.00019, patients N = 77, controls N = 214).
However, no significant differences of these allelic frequencies were found between the patients and the control subjects, suggesting that the HLA-A gene was unlikely a major risk factor of schizophrenia in this sample.