Association between the polymorphism of HLA and ESRD in Dalian Han population located in north of China.

BACKGROUND

End-stage renal disease (ESRD), the last stage of chronic renal failure, is a global health problem. The number of ESRD patients worldwide is increasing faster than the number of kidneys available per year for renal transplantation. Most of the ESRD patients are awaiting renal transplantation. The immune response to the transplanted kidney is directed mainly against mismatched human leukocyte antigen (HLA) glycoproteins expressed on donor tissues. Thus, the analysis of HLA allele and haplotype polymorphisms is valuable not only for identifying ESRD susceptibility factors but also to improve graft survival.

METHODS

In this study, 163 Han ESRD patients were recruited to participate. The blood samples were genotyped by sequence-specific oligonucleotide method. A group of 14,529 healthy Chinese Han individuals registered at the Dalian Blood Center as bone marrow donors, living in the same region and of the same ethnicity, were used as controls.

RESULTS

We found that only one allele, HLA-DRB112, showed a positive association with ESRD (p = 0.004, p = 0.028, odds ratio = 1.530, 95% confidence interval = 1.147-2.041); A02-B40-DRB109, A02-B40-DRB112, A24-B15-DRB112, and B40-DRB112 were significantly more frequent in ESRD patients after Bonferroni correction (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

They were potentially valuable predictors for evaluating the risk of ESRD in the Dalian Han population.