HLA-G5 in the blood of leukemia patients and healthy individuals

In this work we focused on analysis of HLA-G5 molecules in the blood of patients with B-CLL leukemia and healthy individuals. Using sandwich ELISA, we found total soluble HLA-G, represented by sHLA-G1 and HLA-G5 in most of B-CLL patients while HLA-G5 alone was present only in few cases in both groups. These results lead us to assume that the majority of soluble HLA-G in blood is generated by proteolytic cleavage and shedding of membrane-bound HLA-G1. There is no correlation between the presence of HLA-G5 in blood of B-CLL patients and the stage of disease, age, and gender.