Sequence analysis of the MHC class I region reveals the basis of the genomic matching technique

The genomic matching technique (GMT) improves survival following bone marro w transplantation (BMT) between unrelated donor and recipient pairs correla ting with a decrease in incidence and severity of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The principles of this technique are based on the duplication and polymorphic characteristics of the major histocompatibility complex ((MHC). Specifically, the beta block GMT matches for a 300 kb region that contains the human leukocyte antigen (HLA-B and -C) genes as well as other non-HLA genes such as the natural killer cell receptor ligand PERB11 (MIC). The blo ck contains two large segmental duplications. One results in two PERB11 gen es(11.1 and 11.2), the other in two class I genes (HLA-B and -C). With the complete sequencing of the class I region of the MHC in different haplotype s, me can now show that tl-ie beta block GMT profiles reflect amplification of the duplicated PERB11 segments and not the duplicated segments containi ng HLA-B and -C, and yet provide a signature that characterizes the entire block rather than individual loci, Human Immunology 62, 279-285 (2001). (C) American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, 2001. Publishe d by Elsevier Science Inc.