title: HLA A*02 allele frequencies and B haplotype associations in Western Indians.
abstract: The population of Western India is described as Australoid or Proto-Australoid elements with admixture from Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Aryan races. We investigated the frequencies of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) A*02 alleles and their B* allele haplotype associations among 664 healthy unrelated Western Indians. Fifty-one of 204 serologically typed A2 individuals were analyzed for 56 molecular A*02 subtypes using high resolution polymerase chain reaction-reverse line strip-sequence-specific oligonucleotide hybridization (PCR-RLS-SSOP). A total of seven different A*02 alleles were identified, A*02011 (16%), A*0203 (16%), A*0205 (2%), A*0206 (2%), A*0211 (52.9%), A*0222 (4%), and A*0236 (8%). The most common HLA B allele associated with A*02 was B*40. Among the 42 subtypes HLA B*4006 (37.22%) was the most frequent subtype. HLA A*0211 was highly frequent in this population, A*0206 and A*0203 are common alleles observed among Asian populations, whereas A*0205 occurs in Caucasians and Africans and A*0222 has been observed among Hispanics. A*0236 has been observed among the western Indians exclusively. Most of the HLA A*02 subtypes observed were associated with B*4006 haplotype, although A*0236 was with B*0702 or B*1302 among the western Indians. The prevalence of A*0211 at high frequencies, A*0222, A*0236 novel alleles along with A*02 related haplotypes, demonstrate a substantial heterogeneity, which may be a consequence of founder effect, racial admixture, or selection pressure due to environmental factors.
authors.affiliation: HLA Department, Institute of Immunohaematology (ICMR), K.E.M.Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, India. shankarkumar16@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Umapathy
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Shankarkumar
authors.forename: Devaraj
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Prasanavar
authors.forename: Kanjaksha
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.forename: Dipika
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mohanty
mesh_terms: D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics*; D018740:Genetic Heterogeneity; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015234:HLA-A Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D015235:HLA-B Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D015234:HLA-A Antigens; D015235:HLA-B Antigens