Human Leukocyte Antigen-A, B, C, DRB1, and DQB1 Allele and Haplotype Frequencies in a Subset of 237 Donors in the South African Bone Marrow Registry.

Human leukocyte antigen- (HLA-) A, HLA-B, HLA-C, HLA-DRB1, and HLA-DQB1 allele and haplotype frequencies were studied in a subset of 237 volunteer bone marrow donors registered at the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR). Hapl-o-Mat software was used to compute allele and haplotype frequencies from individuals typed at various resolutions, with some alleles in multiple allele code (MAC) format. Four hundred and thirty-eight HLA-A, 235 HLA-B, 234 HLA-DRB1, 41 HLA-DQB1, and 29 HLA-C alleles are reported.

The use of short tandem repeat polymorphisms for monitoring chimerism following bone marrow transplantation: a short report.

Following immunohaematopoietic stem cell transplantation, it is of importance to determine whether the new blood forming system is of recipient or donor origin and such phenotypic characterisation is called chimerism analysis. This is a dynamic process, which may be complete, mixed or split between compartments and in this way, plays an increasingly important role in predicting outcome for engraftment, rejection or residual disease predicating the need for pre-emptive immunotherapy. Based on recent workshop recommendations, peripheral blood cells have been used in the short tandem repeat (STR) assay to serially characterise the haematologic course and so evaluate the usefulness of this system.

The South African bone marrow registry (SABMR) in 2004.

Because of the presence of rare HLA antigens, particularly in patients of African ancestry, the SABMR was established in 1991. Currently approximately 20% of unique HLA types in the international database is from the SABMR. The SABMR donors now total approximately 45,000.