UNIQUE HLA-ANTIGEN FREQUENCIES IN THE FINNISH POPULATION

The Finnish Bone Marrow Donor Registry was established 1992 to serve F innish patients in urgent need of bone marrow transplantation. This st udy details the HLA antigen frequencies, including those of the A 19 s ubtypes, in the Finnish population. Large regional variations were fou nd in antigen frequencies between the different geographical areas of Finland. In particular, antigens A9, B12, B35, Cw4 and DR3 display reg ional frequency deviations, but B7, B8 and B15 also exhibit regional v ariations. The present population is the largest (n = 10,000) ever HLA -typed in Finland. 97% of the donors were HLA-A-B-DR typed. Confirmati on of the serological HLA type was performed by DNA typing on 3% of th e donors in the registry. A potential donor was found for 52% of Finni sh patients in need of a matched unrelated donor for a bone marrow tra nsplantation. Due to the ethnic origin of the Finns, it is not easy to find suitable bone marrow donors for Finnish patients in worldwide re gistries. It is thus important to maintain a national bone marrow dono r registry which recruits donors from all over the country.