Discrimination of HLA null and low expression alleles by cytokine-induced secretion of recombinant soluble HLA

Thus, exposing the cells to cytokine stress allows to distinguish between low- and non-expressed alleles and to classify alleles with a questionable expression pattern (Q alleles). Classifying HLA alleles in expressed and non-expressed variants is essential for matching assessments. Additionally, this discrimination between cytokine inducible and non-inducible defect alleles may be important in allotransplant settings in which a cytokine storm usually occurs following pre-transplant myeloablative conditioning or post-transplant immunosuppressive therapy.