The HLA-DP polymorphism in Denmark investigated by local and international PLT reagents. Definition of two "new" DP antigens.

Lymphocytes from highly selected donors were primed for 10 days and subsequently bulk-expanded in IL 2 (TCGF) containing cultures. Two well-discriminatory PLT (CDP = Copenhagen DP) reagents against each of the DPw1-w6 specificities and one against each of the two "new" specificities, CDP4s and CDPHEI, were selected for further studies. Three combinations made in two recombinant families and four of ten HLA-A, B, and DR compatible combinations discriminated well in contrast to seven of 46 DR compatible, but HLA-A or B incompatible combinations. All reagents gave highly reproducible results, and high correlations (r-values between 0.73-1.00) for DP assignments were obtained with CDP and GNN reagents. No triplets were found for the DPw1-w6 and CDP HEI specificities. The "new" specificity CDP HEI defined in an HLA-DR/GLO recombinant family gave a coefficient of correlation with GNN 8 of 0.91. Another "new" specificity, CDP4s constitutes a subgroup ("split") of DPw4. The gene frequencies of DPw1-w6 estimated in 102 unrelated randomly selected Danes agreed with those reported for other Caucasoid populations. The gene frequencies CDP HEI and CDP4s were 0.03 and 0.08, respectively. The associations between DR3-DPw1, DR2-DPw4, and DRw6-DPw2 were confirmed. It is concluded that DP-typing with bulk-expanded reagents is a reliable and so far the only technique which can reveal the polymorphism of the DP gene products.