Association of HLA-A and Non-Classical HLA Class I Alleles

PLoS One. 2016 Oct 4;11(10):e0163570. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0163570. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

The HLA-A locus is surrounded by HLA class Ib genes: HLA-E, HLA-H, HLA-G and HLA-F. HLA class Ib molecules are involved in immuno-modulation with a central role for HLA-G and HLA-E, an emerging role for HLA-F and a yet unknown function for HLA-H. Thus, the principal objective of this study was to describe the main allelic associations between HLA-A and HLA-H, -G, -F and -E. Therefore, HLA-A, -E, -G, -H and -F coding polymorphisms, as well as HLA-G UnTranslated Region haplotypes (referred to as HLA-G UTRs), were explored in 191 voluntary blood donors. Allelic frequencies, Global Linkage Disequilibrium (GLD), Linkage Disequilibrium (LD) for specific pairs of alleles and two-loci haplotype frequencies were estimated. We showed that HLA-A, HLA-H, HLA-F, HLA-G and HLA-G UTRs were all in highly significant pairwise GLD, in contrast to HLA-E. Moreover, HLA-A displayed restricted associations with HLA-G UTR and HLA-H. We also confirmed several associations that were previously found to have a negative impact on transplantation outcome. In summary, our results suggest complex functional and clinical implications of the HLA-A genetic region.

MeSH terms

  • Alleles*
  • France
  • Gene Frequency
  • Genetic Loci
  • Genotype
  • HLA-A Antigens / genetics*
  • Haplotypes
  • Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / genetics*
  • Humans
  • Linkage Disequilibrium
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide

Substances

  • HLA-A Antigens
  • Histocompatibility Antigens Class I

Grants and funding

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.