HLA-A, -B, -DRB1 Allele and Haplotype Frequencies and Comparison With Blood Group Antigens in Dialysis Patients in the East Anatolia Region of Turkey

AimThe first aim of that study was to investigate HLA class I and class II allele and haplotype frequencies in renal dialysis patients who live in East Anatolia in Turkey. Our second aim was to investigate whether there was a relationship between ABO and D blood group antigens and HLA alleles and haplotypes for the study group.Materials and methodsHLA class I and II polymorphisms in 408 renal dialysis patients were studied using sequence-specific primers (SSP) and sequence-specific oligonucleotides (SSO). Blood group antigens were detected by agglutination methods on microplates.ResultsA total of 16 HLA-A, 34 HLA-B, and 15 HLA-DRB1 alleles were identified. The most frequent HLA-A alleles were HLA-A*02, HLA-A*24, and HLA-A*11. The most frequent HLA-B alleles were HLA-B*35, HLA-B*51, and HLA-B*44. In case of HLA-DRB1; HLA-DRB1*11, HLA-DRB1*04, and HLA-DRB1*13 were first 3 alleles with higher frequency, in order. In the combination of those 3 alleles, the most frequent HLA-A-B-DRB1 haplotypes were HLA-A*02-B*51-DRB1*11, HLA-A*11-B*35-DRB1*11, A*24-B*35-DRB1*11. The frequency of ABO, D blood group antigens were observed as 0.168 for A Rh(+), 0.019 for A Rh(−), 0.057 for B Rh(+), 0.013 for B Rh(−), 0.123 for O Rh(+), 0.014 for O Rh(−), 0.018 for AB Rh(+), and 0.001 for AB Rh(−). While A Rh(+) samples with HLA-A*02 and HLA-DRB1*11 had the highest frequencies (0.067 and 0.088, respectively), O Rh(+) samples with HLA-B*51 had the highest frequency (0.06).ConclusionAccording to haplotype frequencies HLA-A*02-B*51-DRB1*11 is also found at higher frequencies in Bulgarian and Armenian populations. In case of HLA-associated diseases, the east Anatolian population could be susceptible to myastenia gravis, Behçet's disease, and systemic sclerosis due to the high frequencies of HLA-A*24, HLA-B*51, and HLA-DRB1*11 respectively. We did not observe a correlation between blood group antigens and HLA alleles or haplotypes in renal dialysis patients.