HLA antigen, allele and haplotype frequencies and their use in virtual panel reactive antigen calculations in the Finnish population.

The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antigen, allele and haplotype frequencies of the Finnish population are quite unique because of a rather restricted and homogeneous gene pool. This has a strong influence on finding suitable donors for transplant patients; hence knowledge about the HLA frequencies of the patient population is essential. Here we report the HLA antigen frequencies for a large population sample and show high resolution HLA allele frequencies for 11 loci, including the rarely typed DPA1 and DQA1 loci.