OBJECTIVETo assess the association of polymorphisms of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A, -B, -DRB1 alleles and haplotypes with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) among ethnic Hans from northern China.

METHODSA total of 170 ALL patients (patient group) and 1241 unrelated healthy bone marrow donors (control group) were genotyped at a high-resolution level using polymerase chain reaction-sequence-based typing (PCR-SBT), sequence specific oligonucleotide probes (SSO) and sequence specific primer (SSP) typing methods. Frequencies of HLA alleles and haplotypes were calculated with Arlequin 3.5.2 software. The distribution of genes and haplotypes were analyzed through a case-control study, and the odd ratio (OR) of ALL was also calculated.

RESULTSBy cha-square test and correction, an increased frequency of B*13:01 and B*40:02 among ALL patients was discovered in comparison with the controls (7.35% vs. 4.63%, P=0.030; 2.94% vs. 1.45%, P=0.042), whereas B*35:03 and B*46:01 were less frequent compared with the controls (0.29% vs. 1.69%, P=0.048; 4.41% vs. 7.82%, P=0.025). Although the above discrepancies were not statistically significant by Bonferroni correction, within DRB1*15 group, the frequency of DRB1*15:01 in ALL patients was significantly greater than that of the controls (16.18% vs. 10.19%, Pc'=0.041) and was correlated with ALL (OR=1.70, 95% CI:1.24-2.33). Nineteen haplotypes identified in the ALL patients had a frequency greater than those of the controls. Of these, 11 were absent from the control group and were correlated with ALL.

CONCLUSIONThe association of HLA-A, -B, -DRB1 polymorphisms with ALL was determined among patients from northern Chinese Hans. The correlation between DRB1*15:01 and ALL suggested that DRB1*15:01 may be a susceptibility gene for ALL with its particular haplotypes.