HLA class I and class II frequencies of a Hong Kong Chinese population based on bone marrow donor registry data

HLA-A, and -B antigen, gene and haplotype frequencies have been calculated from 18,774 southern Chinese donors on a Hong Kong-based bone marrow donor registry. Two hundred and fifty donors were also tested for HLA-DRB1, -DQA1, and -DQB1 alleles using the PCR-SSP technique. Forty-one HLA-A, -B combinations showed statistically significant positive linkage disequilibrium at the 0.05 level after adjustment for the number of haplotypes theoretically possible and 43 showed significant negative disequilibrium. Thirty-nine different DRB1-DQA1-DQB1 haplotypes were identified of which 20 occurred 5 or more times. The most prevalent was DRB1*0901-DQA1*0301-DQB1*0303 (haplotype frequency = 0.1620). This is the first paper to report the distribution of DQA1*0104, DQA1*05011 and DQA1*05012/13 alleles in Chinese. These data are important for phylogenetic, comparative and medico-legal studies and are of particular value in estimating the likelihood of obtaining appropriately matched donors for Chinese patients awaiting bone marrow transplantation. (C) American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, 1997. Published by Elsevier Science Inc.