HLA Type Variation Across Populations

Abstract

Background: Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) is highly polymorphic and it is commonly used as a marker for core population genital aspects such as human migration, predisposition to diseases and in tissue transplantation compatibility. Methodology: For our study authors have taken up sample size of 86 for meta- analysis of high-resolution frequency data of the HLA allele. North Indian patients from tertiary centre were analyzed for identification of HLA-A, B, C, DRB1 and DQB1 alleles by sing serological and molecular typing techniques. A plethora of known alleles were identified at different loci e.g., HLA A 18, HLA B 36, HLA C 5, HLA DRB1 28 and HLA DQB1 8. This study focusing on frequencies of HLA alleles and their homozygosity and heterozygosity have been reported, but HLA data in the North Indian population living in Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand , Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, are reported here characterized. Allele frequencies were analyzed by using the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Results: Allele heterozygosity was observed in 96.51% individuals for locus HLA-A, 97.67% individuals for locus HLA-B and 96.51% for HLA-DRB1,overallheterozygosity for all three loci was 89.5% (77/86 individuals). Among individuals showing homozygosity (9 individuals), two showed homozygosity at two loci. Conclusion: The increased heterozygosity for class 1 and class 2 is associated with selective advantage against infectious diseases. The phenotypic frequency of B*35 alleles (B*35:01, B*35:03 and B*35:08) in our study is 31.39%. Comparable B*35 allele phenotypic frequency (27.5%) was reported in north Indian patients.