DISTRIBUTION OF HUMAN PLATELET ANTIGENS IN A CHINESE POPULATION

We report the distribution of the human platelet antigens HPA-1, -2, - 3, -4 and -5 as determined using the polymerase chain reaction with se quence-specific primers in 100 random, healthy Chinese in Hong Kong. T he HPA-1a, -2a, -4a and -5a genes were present in every sample tested, HPA-1b, -2b and -5b were rare, and the sample was monomorphic for HPA 4a. HPA-3a and -3b genes showed frequencies of 0.525 and 0.475 respec tively. There was no departure from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in any of the five HPA systems studied.