High-resolution human leukocyte antigen allele and haplotype frequencies of the Polish population based on 20,653 stem cell donors

We present high-resolution allele and haplotype frequency (HF) estimations of the Polish population based on more than 20,000 registered stem cell donors. Sequencing-based donor human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing led to unambiguous typing results in most cases (between 94.3% for HLA-DRB1 and 96.9% for HLA-B). HF estimations were carried out with a new, validated implementation of the expectation–maximization algorithm that allowed processing of data with ambiguities. Our results confirm several earlier results, for example, the relative commonness of the haplotype A*25:01g, B*18:01g, C*12:03, DRB1*04:01 in the Polish population. Because of the large sample size, we were able to obtain results of unprecedented accuracy. The estimated population-specific HFs were then used to analyze questions of strategic donor registry planning. Simulated matching probabilities by donor file size suggest that there is a need for intense donor recruitment efforts in Poland despite the large German donor registry and the genetic relatedness of both populations. Based on the current German registry size of approximately 4 million donors, the recruitment of 100,000 Polish donors would produce a stronger increase in matching probabilities for Polish patients than the recruitment of 3.3 million additional German donors.