Definitive high resolution typing of HLA-E allelic polymorphisms: Identifying potential errors in existing allele data.

Grimsley C, Kawasaki A, Gassner C, Sageshima N, Nose Y, Hatake K, Geraghty DE, Ishitani A.

Abstract

A set of robust PCR-SSP reactions were developed for each of the five polymorphic sites that define the five alleles of the HLA class Ib gene, HLA-E. This method was developed using 28 homozygous cell lines and further tested in a sample of African-Americans, a sample of Japanese, and a core panel of cell lines compiled for the 13th International Histocompatibility Workshop. Three alleles were found in each of these four sample groups, HLA-E0101 (64.29, 50.00, 32.00 and 56.58%, respectively), 01031 (5.36, 20.65, 39.00 and 18.42%) and 01032 (30.35, 29.35, 29.00, and 25.00%). HLA-E0102 was not detected in any of these samples nor in the cell line, LCL 722.221, in which this allele was originally described. HLA-E0104 was not found either. This latter allele was originally reported in Japanese at a frequency of 1/22 (4.5%), which should have been high enough to have resulted in multiple occurrences of the 0104 allele in the samples tested in this study. We propose that the existence of the HLA-E0102 and E0104 alleles should be questioned.

PMID: 12445303