Clinical usefulness of HLAMatchmaker in HLA epitope matching for organ transplantation.

HLAMatchmaker is a computer algorithm that determines HLA compatibility at the structural level. Donor-recipient histocompatibility is assessed with polymorphic amino acid configurations that represent structurally defined elements of HLA epitopes originally assigned as triplets and more recently as eplets. For many patients, HLAMatchmaker can identify mismatched HLA antigens that can be considered compatible at the structural level. Structurally based HLA matching reduces humoral allosensitization and correlates with good transplant outcome. Moreover, HLAMatchmaker is useful in the analysis of serum antibody reactivity and benefits the strategy of identifying acceptable mismatches for highly sensitized patients.