Objective: To identify a novel HLA allele in Chinese population.
Methods: A new HLA-B allele was initially detected by an usual PCR-SSP and PCR-SSOP in routine typing HLA allele. Sequence-based typing (SBT) was used to identify and analysis the difference between the new allele and HLA-B 4409 allele.
Results: The HLA-B exon 3 nucleotide sequence of the novel allele was different from all other known alleles. The allele had 3 nucleotides replaced of the closest matching B 4409 allele at nt538(G>C), nt539(A>T) and nt540 (C>G) in exon 3, resulting in an amino acid change from D(GAC) to L(CTG) at codon 180.
Conclusion: A novel HLA allele was confirmed by the SBT and it was officially designated as HLA-B 4446 by WHO Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System in September,2005.