HLA antigens in Asian Indians: HLA-D-DR relationships.

Fifty-nine Asian Indians were typed for HLA-A, B, D, and DR antigens. Peculiar to the population that we have tested was the absence of HLA-A25, B13, B14, DR1, DW1, LD13 (a DR1-associated HLA-D allele), and LD12 (a DR4-associated HLA-D allele). Certain haplotypes that exhibit high frequencies in Caucasians (such as A2-BW50, AW24-B18, B8-DR3, BW44-DR7, B18-DR5) or in Blacks (such as A29-B7) also show significant delta in Asian Indians. The HLA-D-DR associations previously described in European and North American Caucasians were also found in Asian Indians. Additionally, however, Asian Indians exhibited two new HLA-D antigens, one associated with DR5 and the other with DRw6. The genetic distance between Asian Indians and Caucasians, Blacks, or Mongoloids is of the same order of magnitude.