The distribution of HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 alleles and haplotypes in inhabitants of Guizhou Province of China

The present study was aimed to analyze the frequencies of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A, -B, and -DRB1 alleles and A-B-DRB1, A-B, A-DRB1 and B-DRB1 haplotypes in inhabitants of Guizhou province, China. All samples were typed in the HLA-A,-B, and -DRB1 loci using the polymerase chain reaction-reverse sequence specific oligonucleotide probe (PCR-rSSOP) method and HLA polymorphisms were analyzed. A total of 18 HLA-A, 31 HLA-B, and 13 HLA-DRB1 alleles were found in the Guizhou population. The first two frequent alleles in the HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 loci were A*11(30.72%) and A*02(30.65%), B*40(16.27%) and B*46(16.27%), and DRB1*09(15.91%) and DRB1*15(13.51%), respectively. The most common haplotype was A*02-B*46-DRB1*09(5.59%) in A-B-DRB1, A*02-B*46(11.73%) in A-B, B*46-DRB1*09(7.49%) in B-DRB1, and A*02-DRB1*09(8.08%) in A-DRB1. Some haplotypes with strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) were found not only in the common haplotypes, such as A*33-B*58, B*30-DRB1*07, and B*33-DRB1*03, but also in the rare haplotypes, such as A*01-B*37, B*37-DRB1*10, and A*01-DRB1*10. Guizhou inhabitants shared some characteristics of the Southern Chinese population but also had their own unique features. Overall, HLA polymorphism in Guizhou population was more consistent with that of Chengdu population than that of other populations in China.