HLA-DR and -DQ genotyping by PCR-SSO in Shanghai Chinese

The polymorphism of HLA class II (HLA-DRBI, -DQA1 and -DQBI) were investigated in 89 Shanghai Han Chinese using polymerasechain reaction amplification and oligonucleotide (PCR-SSO) typing. Of the 43 DRB1 alleles tested, 24 were observed. DRBI *0901 (16.85%), *0803 (9.55%), *1202 (9.55%) and *1501 (12.92%) were most frequent and account for the high frequencies of DR9, DR8, DR5 and DR2 specificities in this population. The alleles DRB1 *0101. *0102 and *1001 had very low frequencies. Among the 8 DQA1 and 13 DQB1 alleles tested, only DQA1 *0401 and DQB1 *0402 were absent. DQA1 *0301, and DQB1 *0301 and *0303 were among the most common alleles of the two loci respectively. Unusual DRB1-DQA1-DQB1 haplotypes were observed and a DRB1 “new” allele was suggested.