| Abstract: | The HLA‐B*15 group is the most polymorphic HLA‐B allele and so has several subtypes. These subtypes have not been defined in the population of north‐eastern Thailand (NET). In a previous study, using polymerase chain reaction–sequence‐specific primers (PCR‐SSP), subtypes were categorized into four groups, namely: group I: HLA‐B*15 (01, 04–07, 12, 14, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26N, 27, 32, 33, 34 and 35); group II: HLA‐B*15 (02, 08, 11, 15, 28 and 30); group III: HLA‐B*1503/4802; group IV: HLA‐B*1521. Groups I and II occurred frequently (allele frequency = 8.0 and 2.5%), and thus we optimized the polymerase chain reaction–single‐stranded conformation polymorphism (PCR‐SSCP) method to identify HLA‐B*15 subtypes of groups I and II. Eighty samples of DNA carrying HLA‐B*15 from 300 healthy unrelated individuals were tested. B*1502 (52.5%) and B*1525 (13.8%) were the most common subtypes found in NET. They also showed strong linkage disequilibrium with HLA‐Cw and heterogeneity of HLA‐A, DR, DQ haplotypes. Although limited conclusions can be drawn from this study because of the small number of DNA references used, the baseline data will be useful in the selection of common HLA‐B*15 alleles when subtyping for unrelated donor transplantations. |
