Iron stores in multi-transfused thalassaemic patients seem not to be influenced by the HLA system

The HLA-A and -B antigens of 99 Greek patients with transfusion dependent homozygous beta thalassaemia were determined. The HLA antigen distribution in thalassaemic patients with a severe transfusion siderosis and in patients without signs of siderosis were compared to that of 400 healthy unrelated controls from the same population. There is an increase of HLA-B 14 antigen in both groups of thalassaemics as compared with the controls. No significant difference exists in the distribution of all the other HLA antigens between the two sub-groups of thalassaemics or with the controls.