Detection of polymorphism of HLA class II genes using synthetic oligonucleotides

: The recent sequence determination of exons of various HLA class II genes has allowed us to study the polymorphism of coding sequences of these genes on a sample of HLA-DR typed unrelated individuals. From this sequence determination have emerged polymorphic hypervariable areas. A 24-mer oligonucleotide has been synthetized, which corresponds to the first hypervariable region of the beta 1 domain of a DR-beta molecule. This oligonucleotide hybridized only with the DNA from DR3 or DR5 individuals tested, even under stringent conditions of washing. However, the existence of strong linkage disequilibrium among the 3 or 4 DR genes of the D region does not allow us to conclude that this sequence is epitope-specific.