Abstract:
Aim. The first aim of that study was to investigate HLA class I and class II allele and
haplotype frequencies in renal dialysis patients who live in East Anatolia in Turkey. Our
second aim was to investigate whether there was a relationship between ABO and D blood
group antigens and HLA alleles and haplotypes for the study group.
Materials and methods. HLA class I and II polymorphisms in 408 renal dialysis patients
were studied using sequence-specific primers (SSP) and sequence-specific oligonucleotides
(SSO). Blood group antigens were detected by agglutination methods on microplates.
Results. A total of 16 HLA-A, 34 HLA-B, and 15 HLA-DRB1 alleles were identified. The
most frequent HLA-A alleles were HLA-A*02, HLA-A*24, and HLA-A*11. The most
frequent HLA-B alleles were HLA-B*35, HLA-B*51, and HLA-B*44. In case of HLADRB1;
HLA-DRB1*11, HLA-DRB1*04, and HLA-DRB1*13 were first 3 alleles with
higher frequency, in order. In the combination of those 3 alleles, the most frequent HLAA-B-DRB1
haplotypes were HLA-A*02-B*51-DRB1*11, HLA-A*11-B*35-DRB1*11,
A*24-B*35-DRB1*11. The frequency of ABO, D blood group antigens were observed as
0.168 for A Rh(þ), 0.019 for A Rh(), 0.057 for B Rh(þ), 0.013 for B Rh(), 0.123 for O
Rh(þ), 0.014 for O Rh(), 0.018 for AB Rh(þ), and 0.001 for AB Rh(). While A Rh(þ)
samples with HLA-A*02 and HLA-DRB1*11 had the highest frequencies (0.067 and 0.088,
respectively), O Rh(þ) samples with HLA-B*51 had the highest frequency (0.06).
Conclusion. According to haplotype frequencies HLA-A*02-B*51-DRB1*11 is also
found at higher frequencies in Bulgarian and Armenian populations. In case of HLAassociated
diseases, the east Anatolian population could be susceptible to myastenia
gravis, Behçet’s disease, and systemic sclerosis due to the high frequencies of HLAA*24,
HLA-B*51, and HLA-DRB1*11 respectively. We did not observe a correlation
between blood group antigens and HLA alleles or haplotypes in renal dialysis patients.
