A simple and practical agglutination assay for human leucocyte antigen-B27 typing

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The human leucocyte antigen (HLA) B27 is the most frequently typed single antigen that is associated with diseases. Here, we describe a simple and rapid particle agglutination assay (PaGIA) for HLA-B27 typing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Superparamagnetic particles were coated with a monoclonal antibody to HLA-B27 and subsequently used for testing. Anticoagulated whole-blood samples were obtained from healthy blood donors (n = 194) with known HLA patterns and from patients (n = 51) who had been typed positive for HLA-B27 by flow cytometry. RESULTS: The particles agglutinated only after incubation with HLA-27-positive blood samples, using the ID-microtyping system. Positive reactions were clearly distinguishable from negative reactions in all samples tested. Flow cytometric HLA-B27 typing revealed an indeterminate result in one patient. CONCLUSIONS: The new HLA-B27 PaGIA is suitable for rapid typing of HLA-B27. The assay is simple and easy to perform, and can be implemented in any routine laboratory.