Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) A-C-B-DRB1-DQB1 haplotype segregation analysis among 2152 families in China and the comparison to expectation-maximization algorithm result

Abstract

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) is the major histocompatibility complex for humans. Previous studies have shown that high-resolution HLA matching can reduce graft vs. host disease and improve the outcome of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Unrelated donor HSCT is very important when patients have no HLA-identical sibling donors. However, the chance of finding an available unrelated donor is not equal for every patient. Previous studies in Western countries have found that the HLA haplotype frequency (HF) could help to predict the probability of identifying HLA allele-matched unrelated donors. However, the HLA system shows ethnic diversity and regional disparity. Therefore, if we want to use the HLA haplotype tool in China, a reliable HLA haplotype database for the Chinese population needs to be established.