HLA Typing on Single Human Hairs: DNA Probes to Enzymatically Amplified Genes

Abstract

A single human hair does not contain enough DNA to allow detection of DNA polymorphisms routinely (1). However, a new technique (2) is available that can greatly amplify, in-vitro, short regions of DNA and can detect as little as a few copies of a gene. By using this technique, called the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), to first amplify DNA sequences present in hair, DNA polymorphisms can be easily detected both in single hairs that have been plucked and in single hairs that have fallen out.