HLA CLASS-II ALLELE AND HAPLOTYPE DISTRIBUTION IN A POPULATION FROM CENTRAL POLAND

We have studied the distribution of HLA DRB1, DQA1, DQB1 alleles and h aplotypes in a sample of 103 unrelated healthy individuals from the re gion of Lodz in central Poland by the polymerase chain reaction and hy bridization with allele-specific oligonucleotide probes (PCR-SSO). DRB 10101, DRB1*07, DRB1*1501, DRB1*03 and DRB1*11 were the most frequent alleles at the DRB1 locus. The DRB104 group was observed at a high f requency, but only five out of the 19 DR4 subtypes tested were observe d. The most frequent was DRB10401, followed by DRB1*0403, DRB1*0402, DRB10407 and DRB1*0417. Eight DQA1 alleles were found in this Polish population, among which DQA10501, DQA1*0101 and DQA1*0102 were the mo st frequent. At the DQB1 locus 13 alleles were found. Among them, four were present with frequencies above 10%: DQB10201, DQB1*0301, DQB1*0 501 and DQB10602. Our results underline significant differences betwe en the population of central Poland and populations of neighbouring co untries such as Germany, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. This study wi ll serve as a reference for further anthropological studies, as well a s studies of associations between HLA and disease.