Antigen Society #29 Report (DRw52)

DRw52 was first recognized in the Seventh Workshop as a serologically defined group, seemingly cross-reactive with DR3, DR5, and Te50. In the Eighth Workshop this supertypic specificity, then called MT2, was shown to completely include DR3, 5, w6, w8, and DRw12 (then 8W13). The Ninth Workshop concluded that MT2 must be a member of the HLA-DR subset, although it might be on molecules other than those controlling the then designated HLA-DR specificities. MT2 was thought to be a supertypic antigen encoded by the DRB3 gene. On some haplotypes the gene product was expressed as a separate molecule to that of the private HLA-DR antigen encoded by the DRB1 gene. Thus, the MT2 specificity was formally designated DRw52. The high number was chosen to separate it from the subtypic HLA-DR specificities. More recently, heterogeneity of DRw52 has been defined by molecular,1 , biochemical,2 , cellular,1 , and serologic,3 analyses. It is now clear that DRw52 represents multiple epitopes that can be carried on the DRB1 and/or DRB3 gene products (Table 1).