HLA-D Antigens in the Japanese Population

Abstract

A Japanese population was typed for HLA‐D antigens for the first time using HLA‐D homozygous typing cells Dw1 through Dw4 and the homozygous cells LD HO and LD AH, newly found in the Japanese population. Dw3 was absent from the Japanese population which also lacks B8. Dw1, Dw2 and Dw4 were found in this population, but these did not show significant linkage disequilibria with any alleles of the B or C loci. LD HO and LD AH were common in Japanese but absent in Caucasians. LD HO was found to be in strong linkage disequilibrium with Bw35. LD AH showed significant association with Bw22J.