[Cloning and bioinformatics analysis of SLA-DR genes in Hunan Daweizi pigs].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the potential of Daweizi pigs as xenotransplantation dnors from pigs to humans by analyzing the characteristics of SLA-DR genes in Hunan Daweizi pigs.


METHODS
SLA-DRA and SLA-DRB genes were amplified by RT-PCR, cloned into pUCm-T vectors, sequenced and analyzed through BLAST in NCBI and related software in ExPASY.


RESULTS
The SLA-DRA and SLA-DRB genes were 1 177 bp and 909 bp nucleotides in length, which contain opening reading frame (ORF) and encode 252 and 266 amino acids respectively. Comparing the SLA-DRA and SLA-DRB genes with their counterpart sequences of human, the homologies of amino acid sequences were 82% and 73% respectively. The amino acids in SLA DR alpha chain of Daweizi pigs from position 124 to 136, which bind to human CD4, showed only two differences with HLA DRA: a lle-Val change at position 127 and a Ser-Thr change at position 136. The amino acids in SLA DR beta chain of Daweizi pigs from position 134 to 148, which bind to human CD4, were identical with HLA-DRB. Further comparison with SLA sequences published in GenBank indicated that SLA-DRB gene found in Daweizi pigs has polymorphism while the homology of SLA-DRA gene is up to 100%.


CONCLUSIONS
The cloned SLA-DRA and SLA-DRB in Hunan Daweizi pigs has high polymorphism with HLA-DRA and HLA-DRB in Human, indicates that Daweizi pigs have some advantages as xenotransplantation dnors from pigs to humans.
Wang
Yan
Y
Cell Transplantation & Gene Therapy Center, Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha 410013, China.
Xing
Xiao-wei
XW
Xue
Li-qun
LQ
Huang
Sheng-qiang
SQ
Wu
Xiao-li
XL
Wang
Wei
W
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D019295:Computational Biology; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013552:Swine / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology
D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II; C438668:swine leukocyte antigen