OBJECTIVETo investigate and compare the distribution of HLA-DRB1 * 14 alleles between the southern and northern Chinese Han populations.

METHODSHuman leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DRB1 alleles of 436 southern and 713 northern Chinese Han bone marrow volunteers were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-sequence-based-typing (SBT) method, among them the DRB1 * 1401/1439/1454 ambiguous allele pairs were identified using DRB1 * 14 high-resolution PCR-sequence specific primer (SSP) kits. Also, the clinic samples previously reported as DRB1 * 1401 were re-genotyped using the same PCR-SSP kits. The allelic distribution of DRB1 * 14 in southern and northern Chinese Han population were compared by chi-square test method.

RESULTSEighty-one ambiguous allele pairs of DRB1 * 1401/1439/1454 and 54 clinic samples previously reported as DRB1 * 1401 were all identified as DRB1 * 1454. Among the 436 Southern Han donors, six subtypes of DRB1 * 14 allele were observed including DRB1 * 1454 (69.57%), DRB1 * 1402 (1.45%), DRB1* 1403 (1.45%), DRB1 * 1404 (4.35%), DRB1 * 1405 (20.29%) and DRB1 * 1407 (2.90%). In the 713 northern Han donors, a total of seven subtypes were observed including DRB1 * 1454 (35.48%), DRB1 * 1403 (12.90%), DRB1 * 1404 (6.45%), DRB1 * 1405 (37.63%), DRB1 * 1407 (4.30%), DRB1 * 1411 (1.08%) and DRB1 * 1412 (2.15%).

CONCLUSIONDRB1 * 1454 and DRB1 * 1405 were the most common alleles of HLA-DRB1 * 14 in Chinese Han populations. The distribution of HLA-DRB1 * 14 differ significantly between the southern and northern Chinese Han population, while DRB1 * 1405 showed similar distribution pattern in the two populations but DRB1 * 1454 had higher frequency in southern than in northern Chinese Han population.