HLA-D BG IN ISRAEL - A JAPANESE RELATED ALLELE POPULATION AND FAMILY STUDY

Abstract

A homozygous typing cell for a local HLA-D determinant BG defined by family study is described. HLA-D BG recognizes a specificity identical to the Japanese HLA-DHO (Dw12). Two families and 102 randomly selected healthy Israeli individuals were typed for the HLA-D BG determinant, HLA-D BG showed segregation as a single determinant within families. The gene frequency for this allele was 0.045, compared to the frequency of 0.148 for DHO in Japanese. In the Israeli population BG is in strong association with HLA-Bw52 (joint occurrence = 7.80%) and DR2 (joint occurrence = 8.80%), resembling the data reported for DHO (Dw12) in Japan. The frequency of this allele may partially account for the low frequency of HLA-Dw2 in the Israeli population.