It is difficult to resolve all heterozygous combinations of the HLA-DRB1*03
, *08, *11, *12, *13 and *14 allele group in a one-step generic HLA-DRB1 ty
ping system. Therefore, it is common to employ a secondary technique utiliz
ing group-specific primers to amplify this group of alleles separately from
the other HLA-DRB1, -DRB3, -DRB4 and -DRB5 alleles. This paper describes a
polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RF
LP) method for broad typing of the HLA-DRB1*03, *08, *11, *12, *13 and *14
alleles which, as well as being time-efficient and cost-effective, has so f
ar allowed the detection of 10 new alleles. The new alleles were identified
after following up unusual or novel PCR-RFLP patterns. Of the 10 novel all
eles found so far with this method, seven have been described previously wh
ile three, DRB1*13022, DRB1*1336 and DRB1*1435, are presented here.