HLA-DPBI ALLELES IN A POPULATION FROM NORTH-INDIA AND DESCRIPTION OF A NEW VARIANT (DPB1-ASTERISK-5601)

HLA-DPB1 alleles were studied in 51 normal individuals and 93 leprosy patients from North India using a PCR-oligotyping technique. Hybridiza tion patterns could identify 47 alleles of which 20 were found in the population studied. DPB10401 was found to be the most frequent allele with a frequency of 66.7% followed by DPB10402 (21.6%), DPB1*0201 (2 1.6%), DPB11301 (15.7%) and DPB1*0301 (13.7%). Besides the common all eles, DPB10101, *1701, *2601, *1001, *1601, *0901, *2901, *1501, *050 1, 1401, and *3301 were observed at low frequencies. DPB1*2101, DPB1* 2801, DPB13201 and DPB1*3501 were not found in the normal individuals studied but were observed in the group of leprosy patients. DPB10202 , 0601, *0801 and *1101 were not found in this population. Two allele s with apparent new hybridization patterns were isolated and sequenced . The nucleotide sequences obtained have confirmed the hybridization p atterns. One of them (DPB14601) confirms a sequence recently reported . The other has been given the official designation of DPB15601.