title: Frequency of HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 specificities and haplotypic associations in the population of Castilla y León (northwest-central Spain).
abstract: The frequencies of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and class II specificities and haplotypic associations were determined in 1940 unrelated donors from Castilla y León and compared with other Iberian, Mediterranean and European populations. Specificities were determined using polymerase chain reaction reverse sequence-specific oligonucleotide or polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific primer techniques. In the analysis, 19, 29 and 13 specificities were found for HLA-A, -B and -DRB1, respectively, with HLA-A*02 (26%), -A*01 (11%), -B*44 (16%), -B*35 (10%), -DRB1*07 (16%) and -DRB1*13 (14%) showing the highest frequencies. In addition, 10 common HLA-A-B-DRB1 haplotypic associations were observed, A*01-B*08-DRB1*03 (3%) and A*29-B*44-DRB1*07 (3%) being the most frequent ones. These findings indicate that the population of Castilla y León is genetically equidistant from the Portuguese and other Spanish populations and shares a common origin with other Iberian populations, in which European, Mediterranean and North African genetic components are present; this is in agreement with the historical and genetic background of the population. These data contribute to a better understanding of the genetic structure of the Iberian Peninsula and provide a healthy control population from our region that should be useful for the study of disease associations.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Molecular/HLA, Servicio de Hematología, Hospital Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alcoceba
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marín
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Balanzategui
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Sarasquete
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Chillón
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martín-Jiménez
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Puig
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Santamaría
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Corral
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: García-Sanz
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: San Miguel
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: González
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D015234:HLA-A Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D015235:HLA-B Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains / Q000235:genetics*; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013030:Spain / Q000208:ethnology
chemical_list: D015234:HLA-A Antigens; D015235:HLA-B Antigens; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains