Hydatidiform mole and HLA. Methods for HLA-A,B,C determination.

The current Danish project on genetic markers and hydatidiform moles involves the examination of the histocompatibility between patient, spouse and molar tissue. For this purpose 2 techniques have been developed for HLA-A,B determination of molar tissue: (a) a cytotoxic microtechnique for the HLA typing of cultured molar cells, and (b) a microabsorption method using selected HLA antisera for the examination of frozen molar tissue. To date molar cell cultures or tissue have been examined in 22 of the cases. The results of HLA determination were compared with chromosomal markers to elucidate the origin of the haploid chromosome complements. In the cases examined a general agreement between the HLA-A,B type and the origin of the chromosomes was observed. The microabsorption method used seems to be less sensitive than the cytotoxic technique.