THE STUDY OF HLA-B*44~C HAPLOTYPE POLYMORPHISM IN THE CROATIAN POPULATION

Katarina Stingl Jankovic; Nikolina Spoljaric; Marija Maskalan; Marija Burek Kamenaric; Renata Zunec; Zorana Grubic

Katarina Stingl Jankovic Tissue Typing Centre, Clinical Department of Transfusion Medicine and Transplantation Biology, University Hospital Centre Zagreb
Nikolina Spoljaric Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Hospital Centre Zagreb
Marija Maskalan Tissue Typing Centre, Clinical Department of Transfusion Medicine and Transplantation Biology, University Hospital Centre Zagreb
Marija Burek Kamenaric Tissue Typing Centre, Clinical Department of Transfusion Medicine and Transplantation Biology, University Hospital Centre Zagreb
Renata Zunec Tissue Typing Centre, Clinical Department of Transfusion Medicine and Transplantation Biology, University Hospital Centre Zagreb
Zorana Grubic Tissue Typing Centre, Clinical Department of Transfusion Medicine and Transplantation Biology, University Hospital Centre Zagreb

Keywords: HLA-B*44, HLA-C, population study, HLA-B~C haplotypes, Croatians

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the distribution of HLA-B*44 alleles and determine the common HLA-B*44~C haplotypes in the Croatian population.

The subjects included in this study (N=316) were randomly chosen B*44-positive healthy individuals previously typed for the HLA-A, -B, -C and -DRB1 loci. The high resolution level typing of HLA-B and -C loci was performed using the Polymerase Chain Reaction – Sequence Specific Primers (PCR-SSP) method.

Among five detected HLA-B*44 alleles the most frequent one was HLA-B*44:02 (41.40%) followed by -B*44:03 (25.70%) and -B*44:27 (18.50%). The HLA-B*44:06 allele was detected only once (0.30%). The analysis of the HLA-C alleles’ distribution showed a predominance of a single HLA-C allele in all four subgroups: HLA-C*05:01 for the HLA-B*44:02-positive individuals, HLA-C*04:01 among HLA-B*44:03-positive subjects, HLA-C*02:02 in the HLA-B*44:05-positive group and HLA-C*07:04 among individuals carrying HLA-B*44:27.

The potential application of these data can be found in pre-transplant management of HLA-B*44-positive patients in both hematopoietic stem cell and solid organ transplantation program.