HLA-A, B antigens and their linkage with HLA-DR among blood donors in Taiwan.

The distribution pattern of HLA antigens varies to a great extent among different ethnic groups. Availability of HLA antigen distribution information is very important for disease association study, paternity testing and recipient/donor matching. Analysis of 11,383 blood donors from the Taipei Blood Center, Chinese Blood Services Foundation (CBSF), gave evidence that the distribution pattern of HLA-A,B antigens was unique, yet closer to Southern Chinese with higher A11, A33, B16, B40 frequencies, and B46, B48, B54 as unique antigens when compared with Caucasians. Pairwise linkage disequilibrium analysis between HLA-A, -B and -DR antigens from 238 blood donors revealed unique linkages of A33-B17, A2-B46, A11-B15, A24-B40; A11-DR5, A2-DR9, B17-DR3, B40-DR8, B13-DR2. In addition, A33-B58-DR3 were the most frequent 3-loci haplotypes. Knowing linkage disequilibrium between HLA loci and preferential association of DR specificity among various HLA-A,B haplotypes may provide a more efficient strategy to obtain an HLA-DR or HLA-D region compatible unrelated bone marrow donor from an existing HLA data bank.