Analysis of HLA-A and -B serologic typing of bone marrow registry donors using polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes and DNA sequencing.

Unrelated volunteer donors (69) recruited by the National Marrow Donor Program were HLA typed by DNA-based methods for both the HLA-A and -B loci. Each donor had been previously typed by serology by at least two independent laboratories. Of the 69 samples, all serologic laboratories were in concordance for HLA-A in 62 typed samples and for HLA-B in 48 typed samples. Of the serologically concordant samples, 5 samples typed for HLA-A and 7 samples typed for HLA-B received DNA and serology types differing in their level of resolution. One sample typed for HLA-A and 3 samples typed for HLA-B by DNA methods gave different results from their serologic assignments. Of the samples exhibiting disparities among the different serologic typing laboratories, the DNA-defined types of 7 samples typed for HLA-A and 18 samples typed for HLA-B were consistent with at least one of the serologic assignments. The DNA types for the remaining 3 HLA-B typed samples did not agree with the serologic assignments and their alleles were subsequently sequenced. One of these sequences was a previously undefined allele, B*1537. Sharing of polymorphic sequences among HLA allelic products creates difficulties for consistent serologic assignments of some types complicating the process of identifying potential donors from bone marrow registries. Thus, the use of DNA-based typing techniques for characterization of donor class I types should allow a more consistent definition of types and should speed the donor selection process.