HLA HAPLOTYPES IN KOREANS BASED ON 107 FAMILIES

There are marked differences in the distribution of HLA haplotypes amo ng different populations, and multilocus HLA haplotypes can best be st udied by family analysis. In the present study, 107 Korean families we re analyzed for HLA-A, B, C, DR, and DQ antigens and haplotypes. Allel e frequencies of more than 10% for class I antigens were A2, A24, A33, B44, B62, Cw1, Cw7, Cw9, Cw10, and C blank (CBL) and those for class II antigens were DR4, DR8, DR13, DR15, DQ1, DQ3, DQ4 and DQ7. In the a nalysis of HLA haplotypes, 18 kinds of A-B-DR and 11 kinds of A-C-B-DR -DQ haplotypes occurred at frequencies of more than 1%, comprising 34% and 24% of the total theoretical haplotypes, respectively. The five m ost common A-B- DR haplotypes were exclusively related with the five m ost common A-C-B-DR-DQ haplotypes (frequency>2%). These remarkably con served five-locus haplotypes in Koreans were A33-CBL-B44-DR13-DQ1 (5.4 %), A24-Cw7-B7-DR1-DQ1 (3.5%), A33-Cw7-B44-DR7-DQ2 (3.0%), A33-Cw10-B5 8-DR13-DQ1 (2.3%), and A30-Cw6-B13-DR7-DQ2 (2.3%). Comparison of the d istribution of A-B-DR haplotypes among East Asian populations revealed that Koreans are closest to Japanese, but show a higher degree of pol ymorphism in the distribution of HLA haplotypes compared to Japanese. The results obtained in this study will be useful as basic data on Kor eans for anthropology and organ transplantation.