Purpose: Stem cell therapy is a potential treatment for retinal disorders. We are currently exploring treating HLA matched patients of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by using allogenic retinal pigment epithelium cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS-RPE) from human leukocyte antigen (HLA) homozygote donors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency of HLA class I and II alleles and haplotypes in Japanese patients with AMD.
Study design: Cross-sectional observation clinical study.
Methods: A total of 138 consecutive patients diagnosed with neovascular AMD (mean age, 76.0 ± 7.8 years, 105 men) and 300 controls were included in the study. The frequencies of HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1, -DQB1, and -DPB1 alleles were determined using illumina MiSeq platform. Frequencies of HLA alleles at six loci in patients with AMD were compared with those of the controls.
Results: The alleles with the highest prevalence at each locus were A*24:02 (29.7%), B*52:01 (15.5%), C*12:02 (16.1%), DRB1*09:01 (19.1%), DQB1*06:01 (23.2%), and DPB1* 05:01 (40.5%). There were no significant associations between the HLA alleles and AMD. The most common haplotype was A*24:02-B*52:01-C*12:02-DRB1*15:02-DQB1*06:01-DPB1*09:01, with a 9.8% genetic frequency among all haplotypes, detected in 18.8% of the patients.
Conclusion: The genotype of HLA in patients with AMD was not different from that in the Japanese control population. Thus, therapy with iPS-RPEof the most frequent HLA haplotype could be a feasible alternative for AMD in a wider population.
Keywords: Age-related macular degeneration; Haplotype frequency; Human leukocyte antigen; Induced pluripotent stem cells; Japan.