ALLELIC FREQUENCIES OF THE HLA-B17 ANTIGEN GROUP - COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS BY SEROLOGY, IEF AND PCR-SSOP TYPING

Current typing technology for class I HLA antigens uses serological an d/or isoelectric focusing gel electrophoresis. DNA typing for the HLA class I antigens can accurately identify the class I genotype of indiv iduals and cell lines. Here, we report correlation of DNA typing resul ts with serological and IEF results for the B17 group. The B17 antigen s are relatively common, being carried by almost 9% of Caucasians and 28% of blacks. In this study, five 10th International Histocompatibili ty Workshop cell lines carrying B17 and 106 individuals in 61 families carrying B17 were DNA typed for B17 using B17-allele-specific amplifi cation and sequence specific oligonucleotide probe hybridization patte rn analysis. 38 (55.07%) out of 69 unrelated haplotypes had B5701, 23 (33.33%) had B5801, 6 (8.70%) had B*5702, and 2 (2.90%) had B*5802. DNA typing results correlated well with serological and isoelectric fo cusing results. In general, there was high degree of agreement between all three methods, although heterozygosity for B17 poses a particular problem for serological and IEF methodology. Both B5701 and B*5801 h ave the same electrophoretic mobility on IEF gel, corresponding to B17 .2, B5702 corresponds to B17.1, while B*5802 corresponds to B17.3.