Type I diabetes was the top enriched pathway (FDR q = 2.49e-4), and when looking at specific genes covered by the ontology term (i.e. HLA-B, HLA-DMB, HLA-DPA1, GAD1 and CPE) we found that HLA genes were down-regulated in BAV-ND at mRNA level (HLA-B, P = 0.011; HLA-DMB, P = 0.033; HLA-DPA1, P = 0.010), which may be indicative of a decrease in immune reactivity. This evidence concerns the gene HLA-DMB and type 1 diabetes mellitus.