Distribution of the HL-A antigens in Korean population

Abstract

The HL-A system lymphocyte antigens were detected and analyzed in 155 normal unrelated Korean peoples, using the isolation technique of lymphocyte with Ficoll-Isopaque mixture and microlymphocytotoxicity tests. The results obtained in this study are as follows: 1. The HL-A antigens are rather evenly scattered in its distribution throughout the first and second series, which seems to be quite different from any other population groups. In Koreans, therefore, there is evidence of diversity in the polymorphism of those regions of the major histocompatibility complex expressed by antigen. 2. The most frequent antigens are HL-A2, 13, 12 and 10 in the decreasing order of frequency.. HL-A9 occurs rather infrequently compared to other Oriental populations and HL-Al, which has been recognized to be absent from Orientals, occurs in about 17.4% of the population surveyed. The most frequent haplotypes were HL-A2-13, 2-12, 2-5, 10-13, 3-12, and 9-13. 3. There is a large proportion of blank alleles, 24% and 15%, respectively from the first and second series, which seems to be related to having used not only limited number of antisera, to testing limited number of panels, to the probable existence of unknown specificities in our native population, and to the presence of still undefined or other recently defined antigens. 4. It is certainly suggested that the standard and accurate method of HL-A typing is established through this study, which made possible to perform better histocompatibility matchings for clinical transplantations, to investigate relationships between various diseases and HL-A antigens, and to evaluate further parameter of the evolution of human beings in Korea.