title: Gene frequencies of human platelet alloantigens 1-5 in two Arab populations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Polymorphisms of the human platelet alloantigens (HPA) arise from single base pair substitutions in alleles and lead to changes in amino acids of glycoproteins expressed on platelets. The aim of this study was to determine the gene frequencies of the five common HPA (HPA-1 to -5) in Egyptians and Jordanians and to compare these data with those established for other populations.
  
  
  METHODS
  HPA genotyping was done by polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The gene frequencies obtained in Egyptians were: HPA-1a/b, 0.767/0.233; HPA-2a/b, 0.759/0.241; HPA-3a/b, 0.704/0.296; HPA-4a/b, 1/0; HPA-5a/b, 0.728/0.272, while the frequencies in Jordanians were: HPA-1a/b, 0.821/0.179; HPA-2a/b, 0.877/0.123; HPA-3a/b, 0.660/0.340; HPA-4a/b, 1/0; HPA-5a/b, 0.795/0.205. The observed gene frequencies in both populations were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The gene frequencies for HPA-2b and HPA-5b among Egyptians were the highest reported among Arabs. Except for HPA-2, there were no significant differences in the distribution of HPA-1 to -5 between the two populations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The distributions of HPA alleles among Egyptians and Jordanians are similar to those reported for other Arabs. This study reports the first data on gene frequencies of HPA in Egyptians and Jordanians.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.
authors.forename: Abdel Halim A
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Salem
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.
authors.forename: Alaa Eldin S
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Abdel Hamed
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.
authors.forename: Essam M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Abdalla
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain.
authors.forename: Wassim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Almawi
mesh_terms: D016824:Antigens, Human Platelet / Q000235:genetics*; D018912:Arabs / Q000235:genetics*; D004534:Egypt; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics; D005787:Gene Frequency; D060005:Genotyping Techniques; D006801:Humans; D007597:Jordan; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D016824:Antigens, Human Platelet