title: HLA-A9 antibodies and epitopes.
abstract: Fifty pregnancy alloantisera directed towards HLA-A23 and/or A24 antigens were investigated serologically in titration studies against the three sequenced HLA-A9 specificities, A23 (A*2301), A24 (A*2402) and A2403 (A*2403). The reaction patterns of the antisera fell into five categories which allowed the three HLA-A9 specificities to be easily differentiated. Based on the various titre cytotoxicity scores of the antisera five possible antibody specificities were defined: anti-A23; -A24; -A23/24; -A24/2403 and anti-A23/24/2403. One antiserum crossreacted with HLA-A1 and A24. Inspection of the amino acid sequences of 136 HLA-A, B and C molecules allowed the prediction of five unique epitopes corresponding to these antibody specificities, a possible epitope unique to A2403 and confirmation of a likely epitope shared by A1 and A24. These, together with the previously suggested epitopes HLA-A9/ A2/A28 and A1/A23/A24 together with the presence of Bw4 on the three HLA-A9 antigens suggests that the HLA-A9 family of antigens is characterized by a minimum of nine serologically definable epitopes.
authors.affiliation: Regional Tissue Typing Laboratory, National Blood Transfusion Service (Wales), Cardiff, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fussell
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Street
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Darke
mesh_terms: D000906:Antibodies; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D003601:Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic / Q000379:methods; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D015234:HLA-A Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D000939:Epitopes; D015234:HLA-A Antigens