Human leucocyte antigen matching and donor selection for sibling bone marrow transplantation in India

Fifty one patients undergoing treatment for various diseases and disorders (leukaemia of different type, thalla saemia and anaemia) at Kothari Medical Centre, Kolkata and awaiting bone-marrow transplant, and their siblings were studied for their Human Leucocytes Antigen (HLA) compatibility. Forty of these patients had siblings available as probable donors. In eleven cases, planned pregnancy and testing the chorionic villi sample (CVS) was adopted. The study revealed that the probability of finding a full house match was greater with larger sib-ship size tested: 63% with three available sibling donors, 43% with two and 36% with only one sibling available. CVS donors also showed full house match in 36% of the cases. Five of the families were studied for HLA -A ∗ , B ∗ compatibility as well. When the DRB1 ∗ locus was a probable homozygous, HLA A ∗ and B ∗ typing revealed their incompatibility.